WP5 - Front Line Employee Web Poster

The topic of this blog was very relevant to my personal experiences. There have been many times where a company's internal processes and operations have caused me to become very irate. I have to take a step back to realize that the brunt of my frustrations, the front line people, have little to do with the problem. I empathize with their role as they take punishment from consumers on a daily basis. One prime example of this are service counter reps at airports. It isn't their fault that a plane is delayed... but passengers don't care. They'll yell, whine, curse, etc. as if that rep. was personally responsible for their inconvenience.

I feel that culture is important in this situation, but lines communication are paramount. Having clear channels for front-line workers to report back to the internal organization allows them to feel like they're helping solve the problem while providing the internal operations with tangible information. Without these channels of communication, the front line feel that they are being left to fend for themselves... and instead of being the face of the company, are acting as the scapegoat of the company.

WP4 - Effective Leadership in Organizations and Cultures

This web poster focused a bit on the differences between transformational and transactional leadership. This is an important concept that we've visited in this class and in other classes as well. Transformational leaders are those who take leadership as a motivational role, trying to get the best out of their subordinates. Transactional leaders take more of a supervisor role, trying to manage and control specific behaviors.

This is similar to the concepts of effective change management. Transactional leadership is based on rewards and punishments, but these only change short term behaviors. For effective change to take place, there must be an unfreezing phase... which necessitates transforming of fundamentals. Once these changes have been in place, rewards may be put in place to positively reinforce these behaviors and "refreeze" the change. So basically, transformational leadership is necessary to generate sustainable change.

WP3 - Cross-cultural Communication Issues in USA and India Organizations

Kartik's web poster brings up a very prevalent set of issues in today's global workplace. Inter-cultural communication unknowingly leads to many mis-communications and/or mis-understandings. Working with global teams, I find I must be careful to speak clearly and not use slang terminology or colloquialisms.

My first officemate ever had recently come to the U.S. from Hong Kong. While he spoke English fluently, he was determined to REALLY fit in... so he bought a huge book of colloquialisms. I cringed every time he would call something we were doing "groovy" or "that's so phat!" Flipping through the book, they had slang terms that I've never even heard of! Eventually I got tired of correcting him all the time (he asked me to point out any mis-use). I told him that he was trying to hard and stood out even more as a result.

Another personal anecdote - a cople years ago I went abroad on a business trip. I had trouble communicating with the language barrier, so I resorted to hand gestures and facial expressions. It was after a night of drinking and an almost fight that I was informed... signing "thumbs up" ... meant "F* You" in their culture! Ooops!

WP2 - Communicating Change Effectively

This web poster touches on a very central problem for many businesses. Change management is typically conducted in a very hierarchical fashion. Management dictates changes and encounter a deal of resistance. Companies typically have inertia, meaning that employees typically favor stability over change.

Even more resistance is encountered when strategic decisions from up above oppose common sense operational practicalities. As an employee, there have been many change decisions that I've shook my head and wondered why in the world they would do that. More disconcerting was the fact that there was no communication about rationale and/or avenues to provide feedback to the decision maker. As this web poster mentions:
Employees may have a better and more accurate assessment of the results of change compared to the manager, if heard they can protect the organization (Waddell & Sohal, 1998).

Change success may be drastically increased by involving employees in the decision making process. This not only helps add an operational perspective to decisions, but also increases employee buy-in. Both will typically increase a company's chance of successful change implementation.

WP1 - An Analysis of Global Virtual Teams: Conflict & Leadership

The first web poster I read was PinkLady's... because I received a million update change update notifications for her pbwiki through gmail. With all those changes, I figured it had to be a good web poster. ;)

The topic immediately interested me because of 2 main factors:
1) I've been a part of several virtual teams (with varying degrees of success).
2) I was interested in how she got information prior to 2003.

This web poster was well organized and informational.

While I agree with the advantages and disadvantages listed in table 2.1 and figure 2.1, the most prevalent one in my experience was absent. I am admittedly an over-friendly person at time and while many people like to keep work and home life separate, I've always been social with my co-workers. This means the occasional after-work beers or BBQ. When working on virtual teams, there was friendly banter... but never the same depth of interaction and communication. The "personal touch" was definitely lacking in virtual teams.

I know that virtual teams will grow increasingly popular and the "personal touch" will decrease in importance as virtual communications become the norm... I am slightly saddened to think about that future workplace. :(

11.5 - Instant Messaging

The spread of information throughout organizations has increased dramatically over the last decade. One particular tool of interest to me is the Instant Messenger. While some refuse to use it, IM's have been invaluable to me. The greatest business attributes to me are responsiveness and speed. There are many people that I simply would not talk to on a regular basis without IMs. Through frequent conversations, even in busy times, I've forged deeper understanding and solid business relationships. We've established a mini-network of people we can talk to across the organization on a moment's notice. This brings me to the 2nd point - speed. It's nice to know at any given point in time, just by scrolling through your contacts list, that you can get someone to answer an important question or direct you to someone that can. Short of working in a conference room with 50 other employees... I've found that kind of responsiveness impressive.

While many companies are trying to capture the power and speed of IM'ing, there is admittedly a fair amount of abuse. I admit, I am a part of that abuse. :D Regardless, I feel the current and potential benefits for IMing are great!

11.4 - The squirrel technique...

When I first started working, I had some important projects and thought I was on the fast track to success. Putting everything into learning about wireless networking, I became our department's technical lead for that technology. Fearing that my position may be toppled, I did the worst possible thing... I squirreled the information away. I reasoned that if I was the only one that knew the technical info, I would be invaluable to the department. I was wrong.

One Christmas I went back home for the holidays. While on vacation, my plan backfired. One of our main routers crashed and the backup never took over. My department scrambled to find documentation in our workroom... but there was none. They asked around to see who could fix it... but no one could. This is the situation I was hoping for - I would be recognized as the "expert" who could fix everything. Instead, my manager absolutely chewed my butt out. They couldn't get a hold of me for 3 days and in this time, our client was furious. I almost lost my job over this...

In the end, I learned that sharing information is good. Teaching others was the best way to improve the department while showing commitment and leadership!

11.3 - Revisiting information overload

For a week, I was out of the country and had no Internet or phone access. Despite early separation anxiety, I truly learned to enjoy the feeling. As I sat on the plane... I dreaded the avalanche of email I would return to. Sure enough, my voicemail box was full and it took me about 3 hours just to sort through my emails for just one week.

After reading about information overload for quite a while, I decided to curtail my email usage as much as possible. It took me a while to wean myself away from tv and caffeine... and I haven't been successful staying away from those, so I'm dubious about my efforts to be strong when it comes to email. So far, I've restricted myself to checking email only twice a day and it's been nice. At the very least, it should help me organize my time better...

Wish me luck!

11.2 - Rants & Raves, pt.2

Another random rant.

the next chapter of my last blog...

The year following my bad performance review, I had low motivation at work. Think Office Space, when he starts cleaning fish at his desk... but instead, I would bring fishing reels to work, dismantle them, clean them, then reassemble them. My manager never said anything directly about it, but seemed somewhat amused by my little assembly line. I got my job done, but did the bare minimum necessary. I made sure never to sign up for projects if I could avoid them. One day towards the end of the year, we had our last meeting before our performance review. He asked how I felt about the year so far and for reasons I don't understand, I told him...
"my job is boring. xxxxx is an idiot, I've had to fix her work several times. I don't trust working with xxxxx, he's a backstabber. I don't like coming to work. the customer whines too much. I take long lunches and sometimes sneak 9holes of golf in. I don't like it here. I think the processes we do are completely asinine and a waste of time."

He thanked me for my imput and didn't really address anything, asking what I'd prefer to do. I told him I rather be working on an external account to have some other human interaction and get out of my rut. A month later, I got a great review saying that I showed initiative and was assigned to an external account. I was as surprised as anyone... I had busted my butt the year before and received a sub-par rating. This year, I slacked off and told him I had no motivation... and he gave me a good rating.

I think the whole rating and evaluation system is a farce. It seems so subjective and not based on any solid criteria. I can work on a dozen projects, fail 1, and get a bad rating... or I can work on 4 projects all year and finish them leisurely and get a good rating. I'm not sure what kind of behavior they're trying to reinforce...

Rant off.

11.1 - Rants & Raves

Random rant.

Growing up in Hawaii, I always thought it would be cool to move to the mainland and work in a large corporation. Unfortunately, my experiences have soured my perceptions of what it was really like. Most notably, the companies I've been a part of have had horrible communication practices. The following is one example:

Every year in IBM, we have annual evaluations. Since our bonuses, promotions, and raises are based off these evaluations, they are understandably quite important. One year, I had an active year, receiving a few performance awards and completing several high profile projects. During annual review, I received a rating below what I expected. My manager knew I was upset and suggested that I may talk to my second level manager. As part of our checks and measures, IBM has an open door policy for these situations. It turned out to be a waste of time. After bringing a list of my year's accomplishments... my second line manager told me "I can't do anything... I have to trust my first line managers since they're the ones in the field." My second line manager refused to even review my documentation. My manager refused to talk to me about the issue once it was handed out... and I had no recourse to appeal the matter. Frustrating.

9.5 - Change is good?

p.328 talks about "What makes organizational change efforts successful?"
The section identifies 3 main criteria - how widely change was accepted by stakeholders, how pursuant the results were to goals, and how the change may have unintended consequences.

These three are so tied to each other, it's hard to separate them into mutually exclusive entities. When I first started working, I thought that goals were the ultimate criteria. It didn't matter how the change occurred and who liked it... the bottom line was, did it accomplish the intended goals? I quickly learned that is not the case. If the change is not widely accepted, I witnessed that the results often reverted quickly. Change is easy to push through for short term goals, but acceptance was needed for long-term change goals.

Likewise, I've experienced so many cases of unintended consequences. Whether this entails poor planning or diagnosis, some of these consequences were very obvious. Short-sightedness and tunnel vision is prevalent in some groups I've been in - "eye on the prize, focus on task at hand." An outside perspective often helps shake things up and lend a shred of common sense to some change projects.

9.4 - Change... as long as you do it my way

Chapter 11 talks about change...

My first corporate job had PBC's - Personal Business Commitments. We would cite short and long term goals/commitments, then be measured against them when it came to our annual reviews.

Management often used these PBC's as a tool to try and push change through a division. Unfortunately, the way they did so was poorly executed. We were told to write what we wanted and what would motivate us. When we were done, we had a quick review with our manager... who would hand us his PBC's and make us re-write ours to match and be consistent with his goals. His goals were not necessarily his per se, but rather based off his manager's PBC's. The trend cascaded from some originating point where they thought "this is what we should focus on".

In the end, our PBC's were just a frustrating experience, ultimately just copying some loosely formed set of goals from up the chain. They never really inspired change and the PBC wording changed so greatly from year to year that the meaning was lost.

I could see the benefit of giving us a list to start with BEFORE we draft our own PBC's, stating things like "we wish to have customer satisfaction rating of 95%" By this, we could think about it and see how we could do our part in meeting this group expectation.

9.3 - Burnout... and Office Space

From the movie Office Space:
"I was sitting in my cubicle today and realized that every single day of my life has worse than the day before it, so every single day that you see me is on the worst day of my life."

It's amazing how many parallels I find between my life and Office Space...

P. 299 begins the book's discussion of burnout. Working in a large corporation, I've experienced bad burnout. Having worked in smaller companies, I always thought that working for a large international corporation was a glamorous endeavor... boy was I wrong.

Working for my first large corporation excited me. I learned about my important role in internal affairs and how I fit into this huge machine. I played my role of a cog very well, diligently doing my job. Unfortunately, this excitement was short-lived. My role became tedious and redundant. I began to notice how little my job was appreciated and how management eschewed feedback. Soon, I was a victim of burnout. I literally dreaded coming to work. I considered taking a year off and being a rice farmer... it sounded more fun than my job.

I eventually got out of this rut by transferring to an external team. Working with individual customers allowed new experiences and new challenges. I was able to see my work making a real difference.

9.2 - Managing Conflict

P. 290 has a chart showing relationships between cooperativeness and assertiveness. When there is low cooperativeness and high assertiveness, competition is the prevalent style.

I had a project lead once that was deep into the competitive corner of the style chart. It was his way or the highway... while not competitive, he did exhibit dominance in the form of power trips. As the project was very time critical, he acted as a dictator. There are times when having a "take charge" kind of leader is helpful and the most efficient. Unfortunately, his leadership was dominant to a fault. Most notable of his shortcomings was the inability to take feedback from team members. This turned out to be a considerable defect. Our team was assembled from site representatives for a rollout plan... and there were certain locations in which the plan would not work due to hardware limitations. Instead of taking feedback, our project lead said that those sites would just have to figure it out. As a result, the project ended in failure.

There's an old saying "when you point a finger at someone, there are four fingers pointing back at you." Upon failure, our project lead pointed fingers at those problematic sites, saying that they did not handle their part of the equation. Several team members quickly responded with documentation of the many times the issues have been brought up...


In a situation like this, it is hard to ascertain how to address this conflict. The immediate response would be to talk to a superior. This was attempted by a team member, but the upper level manager said "I'm not familiar with the project, so I have to trust my people to do the right job." Perhaps going even a level higher was warranted, but with much internal turmoil, making enemies was a risky proposition...

9.1 - Accounts and conflict

page 281: "Managing conflict effectively requires those in conflict to acknowledge that their accounts are their truths, not The Truth."

In organizational conflict or everyday conflicts, this quote is a basic tenet of conflict resolution. It's always interesting to see how even a small, seemingly straightforward event may be slanted in such different directions based on participant accounts. Whether it's perspective or an underlying agenda, accounts may vary wildly. Further clouding the Truth are participants interjecting insinuations of others' motivations into their accounts.

On fortuitous occasions, there may be an unbiased 3rd party to give an unbiased account of what happened. Unfortunately, the term "unbiased" is really more of a theory... most people harbor bias whether consciously or subconsciously. The only way to resolve conflict in these cases is to get as many relevant accounts as possible and all relevant facts... similar to our legal system.

8.5 - The Power of Current Events

I remember going in to school on current events day with my scrap of newspaper, proud that I knew something that no one else knew... and I was going to teach them.

As we discuss power of knowledge in organizations, I thought of a recent trend I've noticed in business. The advent of the Internet has put the world at our fingertips. This provides a pantheon of knowledge and information at one's disposal. This revolution has also sped up the rate at which technology is developed.

What I've noticed about knowledge/power, is that there is a large shift from the days of employees holding prestige solely based on their depth of experience/knowledge. While experience is always good, adaptability and being on the cutting edge of technologies are becoming key attributes. One may look up historical data if needed, but being ahead of the industry in new techniques/processes is often paramount. Those who possess experience/knowledge and know how to leverage it in new and creative manners... hold the true power of knowledge.

8.4 - Pharmacy farce?

Box 9.3 talks about what knowledge counts as important. My first thoughts are of a buddy's recent graduation from Pharmacy school.

While I'm proud of the hard work he has put in over the years, I had a frank conversation with him about the validity of the profession. His starting pay, right out of school, is 120K. As he studied for his boards, I looked at his training program which listed a multitude of medications that I can't even pronounce, their conflicts with other medication, uses, special care requirements, etc.

My question was why most of his job couldn't be replaced by a computer system. After a bit of excuses, he admitted that most of it could. He said a large part of his job was to ensure that medicines weren't being mixed in a bad way and that the doctors weren't messing up on prescriptions. We came to the consensus that a computer system would probably be more efficient and more accurate. Any gray areas would be flagged for a pharmacist's attention. Since this would be a small percentage of prescriptions, a pharmacy could reduce the # of pharmacists from half a dozen to one or two.

The knowledge that he has accrued over the years of school are what he's being paid for; however, when that type of encyclopedia style knowledge may be substituted by a computer program... one has to wonder how long many professions will last.

8.3 - Power hungry

Chapter 9 begins with a list of different perspectives on power. Seeing many opposing criteria/definitions/assumptions, I thought I'd blog about my personal perceptions of power:

I've always thought of power as evil. Perhaps it's years of watching cartoon villains plot to take over the world... Many Saturdays were spent watching some evil maniac poorly execute a hair-brained scheme to increase their reign of terror. Whether Decepticons, Cobra Commander, or Skeletor, their quest for power is portrayed as as sickness. This quest consumed their ever-waking moment, driving them to evil means of trying to obtain it.

I'm not sure if their colorful antics shaped my perceptions, but whenever I see people striving for power, I see a tinge of Joker or Lex Luthor. ;)

8.2 - Supervising vs. Facilitating

Box 8.5 discusses some differences between traditional supervisors and team facilitators.

In my experience, many managers experience difficulty in becoming facilitators. One job I had... I was the group supervisor for a small team of employees. I took assignments, broke them down, and delegated tasks to each employee. I then monitored and (though I hate to admit it) micro-managed the progress to ensure that each part was being sufficiently. When attending a leadership class, we were taught a new corporate approach dealing with facilitating rather than strict supervising.

I'd like to say that I became a good facilitator, but that is hardly the case. It was so much easier to delegate and hold people to deadlines rather than trying to develop the team's individual talents. I felt comfortable with my team's abilities, but did not trust that they'd come up with the necessary results if I wasn't the one leading them. Since I entered the role as a team leader, it was hard to stray from that mentality. If I had entered the role as a facilitator, I believe there would be no precedent and I would have done a better job.

Looking back on it, I can see where I overly micro-managed and struggled to retain tight control over every detail. I most certainly learned from my experiences; however, it is/was hard to see the big picture while involved in the situation.

8.1 - Teamwork in MBA program

Chapter 8 begins discussion of teamwork on p.225.

While teamwork is undoubtedly a core focus of the MBA program, there are several fundamental problems with too much school group work. The main issue I have experienced with group work is accountability. In a work setting, if a group member is not carrying their weight... there are ways around it. One possible course of action is to enlist managerial pressure to spur the group member into action.

In school, I've had many group projects where a member simply said that they were happy to get a B. Haven never gotten a B before... this bugged me to no end. If they are happy to do mediocre work and receive a mediocre grade, the group suffers. One can try to encourage them to strive for a higher standard, but if they are happy with the bare minimum... others are forced to pick up the slack. In the end, they get the same grade as someone that did far more than their share. Some professors encourage feedback to adjust grades accordingly; however, that is the exception rather than the norm.

So yes, I see the value of group work, but feel there's a need for better process/standards by which group work is used in the school setting.

7.5 - Gandhi vs. Chainsaw Al

Box 7.10 talks about the differences in styles between Gandhi and Chainsaw Al, asking the question "are such leaders transformational?" and do they belong in the same category as Gandhi, MLK, etc.

My opinion - yes. There is absolutely no doubt that Chainsaw Al is a transformational leader. His whole reputation is built on turning companies around. On the other hand, while he's great at that part... I wouldn't classify him as a great overall leader. It's easy to look at numbers and make strategic decisions. It's much more difficult to take employees, nurture a company's culture, and grow the company. I believe leadership entails a certain level of empowering one's subordinates and growing them along with the company. Due to this belief, I view Al as a great strategist and transformational leader, but not one that can carry the end product as far as possible.

7.4 - Overqualified for management... ??!

Chapter 7 discusses the qualities of a leader and what defines leadership. One question posed is "Is it leadership only if you're successful?" This reminds me of professional sports. Professional sports like the NFL or NBA play workplace dynamics on a grand public scale. If a head coach is not achieving winning results, the outcome is pretty standard... they're fired. If a coach has a good reputation, they are given more time as many believe that bad results are just indicative of a "work in process." Ultimately, a team's record is the baseline that a coach's leadership qualities are based on.

On to another thought:
In my first large corporate job, they had a saying "if an employee can't handle the technical work, promote them to manager." It was an ongoing joke about how it took forever to lay people off, so to keep poor performers from causing too much trouble, they'd be promoted to manager. I laughed it off as a joke, but found out it was true! My manager told me that he joined the group and wasn't able to learn the material since it was so different from his old position. He eventually gave up trying to learn and was assigned more clerical tasks. Within 2 months , he was promoted to management! I jokingly asked if I'd be able to move into the management route... and he told me that I was too valuable as a technical employee to be considered for it. A very dubious honor. :(

7.3 - Networking 101

Chapter 6 discusses communication networks and using networks of relationships to aid in landing jobs. This reminds me of a conversation I had with a good friend before entering the MBA program. He graduated in 96' from the SJSU MBA program and said the biggest thing he got out of his time here was the connections he made. His career has consisted of three main jobs - all of which he obtained through his network of SJSU alumni. This comment was the sole reason I hesitated on attending this program... I initially planned to move out of the area back to Hawaii when I'm done, so I thought that I'd be better served doing my MBA studies there.

Like most business students, the benefits and necessity of networking has been ingrained in my head. I've been very successful in pairing job seeking friends with friends who happen to be hiring or have a department hiring. Unfortunately, this success hasn't worked so well for myself. So... if your company is hiring, I'm always looking for new opportunities. :D

7.2 - "hey, are you on the computer?"

I've never blogged about cartoons; however, the New Yorker cartoon on p.143 stands out for so many reasons. It depicts a woman pointing a gun at a man seated in front of his machine, saying "O.K., step away from the laptop and hold up your end of the conversation." This cartoon brings up many cases of computers disrupting communications. Here are a few:

In class, most MBA students have their laptops open (admittedly myself included). It's no coincidence that I can remember a lot more material from classes where the professor forbid laptops during class.

On phone conversations, I'll be on my computer and think I'm doing a good job of multi-tasking when I hear, "um... are you on the computer? ... is this a bad time?" Apparently I am not as good a multi-tasker as I had led myself to believe. My friends report that it's quite obvious because I lag considerably when answering questions and basically sound like an idiot because I miss the point of the converation at times.

Department meetings at work - many companies I've been with have implemented a strict no-laptop policy. Similar to no-laptop policy in classes, this keeps employees more focused on tasks at hand. There are many meetings where I've been a part of... and I have no idea why I'm there since it had nothing to do with me. With my laptop, I'd just do other work while sitting there and leave at the end with no issue. However, if I don't have a laptop with me... after an hour of listening to completely irrelevant banter, I am sure to talk to the meeting coordinator and question their reason for inviting me to this pointless (for me) meeting.

7.1 - work life and non-work life

Drawing the line between work & non-work life has become an arduous task. With telecommuting and changing job responsibilities/expectations, the two complement and clash with each other in a multitude of ways. It is hard to define since different people react to different situations in completely different manners.

Chapter 6 mentions how increased work hours have limited the available free time for many employees. My first job in Silicon Valley was this way. I was excited to have a good job and become a salaried man at IBM. I was very proud of my new role and it was only moderately difficult for moderate pay. I worked about 45 hours a week and was generally pretty happy. I spent a lot of time out with friends and would travel on weekend getaways frequently.

Soon, I had an opportunity to take a new job with a 15K raise! I was ecstatic. A couple months into the new job, I found myself working 60-70hr weeks. I never went out during weekdays anymore. I rarely saw my friends. I never traveled. When I calculated it... I made considerably less per hour compared to my old job... but I stuck with it because I thought I was moving up the ladder.

As the book mentions, Hochschild reports that some employees use work to escape from home stress. At my new job, I was miserable... but I had an office-mate who loved every minute of it. He joked with some seriousness that his wife and kids drive him nuts... and work was the one place where he could get away. He wasn't a particularly good employee, but would be the first to the office and the last to leave.

6.5 - Here's why Amway can work for you!

My brother... my dear brother... is an idiot. He is a sucker for every multi-level marketing (MLM) business out there. His life is built around the pyramid scheme.

Chapter 5 talks about how the U.S. Forest Service initiates new rangers by having them give public speeches. This process reinforces the new rangers' views and identification to organization.

Seeing (and hearing) my brother go from MLM to MLM, I've seen this reinforcement first hand. He'll get excited about something, but not know much about it. As he first begins talking about it, there is some skepticism in his voice. However, as he talks to more people about the product and program ("you sign up 2 people.... and they sign up 2 people..."), he begins to identify with the company and the company's ideas. Within a month, he's a strong supporter - something that wouldn't be possible if he just read a bunch of material. The constant affirmations that he gives to others serve to convince himself.

As for his constantly trying to get me to sign up or buy something... Caller ID is a wonderful thing... ;)

6.4 - Where'd all the parking go?

Box 5.2 talks about virtually identities and the effects of telecommuting on business identities.

As people telecommute with increasing frequency, it is often easy to lose one's sense of identity in the traditional work sense. As a recent RIF (reduction in force) was slated to begin, employees at our site became more nervous. Many telecommuters showed up in person to get some "face time" with their managers. The odd side effect is that we actually ran out of parking in our employee parking lot!!! As I rolled up to work at 10:30am... I found employees circling as if it were Christmas shopping season at the mall.

In my opinion, it's hard to beat the tangible nature of real face-to-face attention. As telecommuting becomes more of a norm, the way employee identities are formed will continue to change. Until that time, I'll have to show up to work earlier when RIF's are occurring. ;)

6.3 - I'm unique because I wear Nikes

p.111 made me laugh.

"One of the central messages of modern advertising is that the individual can express who he or she is through the purchase of a branded product or through identification with a group of people who express themselves with the same style."

My little cousin is going through a non-conformist phase. Truth be told, there aren't a lot of 11-yr old punk-rockers in Hawaii... but he tries. He has the black jeans, black t-shirt, studded belt, and dyed black hair. He has the attitude to match, always talking about how he doesn't like all those preppy A&F and GAP/BR/Old Navy kids... that they're all the same. This is where the fun begins...

He absolutely hates when I call him an emo kid. He hates it more when I talk about how conformist he is. He denies it up and down, but all of his punk rocker friends look just like him... hair all the same color... they all buy their clothes from the same store... that store is a nationwide chain... ;) In trying to avoid a mainstream stereotypical look, he went straight to an alternative stereotypical look.

I see this identity crisis a lot in sports. The rich new guy is always the easiest to spot - without any experience, he shows up with brand new gear from head to toe... not just equipment, but clothing and apparel as well. It's a shopping spree in attempts to try to be ready, fit the stereotype of the sport, and try to self-boost their validity by wearing what they think a "real sports star" would wear. :)

6.2 - Take me out to the ball game...

Box 4.5 discusses how Trujillo broke the baseball game experience into 3 main themes: business, community, and drama.

What drew my attention was the point that culture may often be highly subjective. Just as artifacts represent a company's actions, culture of a company may be perceived very different to different people. Call me un-American for not valuing the experience, but I've never liked going to ballgames. Despite liking sports in general, I've always found baseball to be relatively boring. As a result, I know my perspectives of the culture of attending a baseball game will be strikingly different than the man next to me... painted head to toe in home team colors, yelling at the top of his lungs, and waving a foam hand with a sense of reckless abandon.

Not sure what my point is other than there are many instances where a company's culture may be viewed in different lights.

6.1 Flair

Chapter 4 also brings up artifacts. I'm not sure why artifacts stick out in my mind... probably because they remind me of the movie Office Space.

One of the important aspects that the book covered is that "artifacts are more visible than values." This phrase stood out since it made me think about the way that artifacts and a company's culture complement and contrast each other. Artifacts are described as "manifestations of the deeper levels of culture." While this is no doubt true, I think another interesting facet of artifacts is the way a company will manipulate them as a tool to create culture. Some artifacts may be used in efforts to grow a pre-conceived idea of an optimal culture; however, the success is often not always guaranteed.

So while artifacts are often regarded as the results of a company's culture and doings... they may also be a foundation.

5.5 - Project ideas, con't.

The more I think about project proposal ideas, the less sure I am of what I want to do. My last blog covered a general idea that I found interesting. It's easy for a company to say they want to have quality employees who work to provide the best products/service to their customers... but the real issue is how they carry this overarching idea to fruition. The problem I'm seeing is that it's such a broad scope and I'm not sure how to narrow it down while keeping my original focus intact.

Another idea I've been tossing around is researching information overload and the different manners in which companies (and individuals) deal with the problems caused. This is a very prevalent and interesting topic for most MBA students. As information sources continue to grow, this problem will continue to grow. I'd like to research the current practices deemed most effective and proposed solutions which hold merit.

5.4 - Project ramblings...

In BusLaw, our professor told us that we can try as hard as possible to prevent lawsuits... but it's impossible to shield a company 100%. Instead, we should concentrate on doing the right thing, training people the right way, and creating/following the right processes. If we do these things, most lawsuits should be mitigated.

Likewise, company's character may be reflected through various artifacts. Poor character may be easily found and exposed to the public. Reputations takes time to build... but only a few bad cases to destroy.

I think this would be an interesting direction to go for my project. My initial thought is to focus on how companies design and implement processes to generate positive reputations from both internal and external perspectives. It's interesting to me how a company may choose different methods of creating a corporate culture and having that carry forward to its customers. The thoughts

5.3 - Survey Monkey

Among data gathering techniques discussed, are surveys. While surveys may provide a quick blanket method of gathering tangible data, the shortcomings are also well known. Several are covered on page 449.

In undergraduate studies, I did a psychology project on surveys. We asked a series of 10 rather private questions. We did so through different methods - oral surveys, written surveys (private, when sitting next to others), online surveys. The results were tabulated and we assessed how people answered. The results supported our hypothesis - different research methods produced different answers. Some differences were slight, others more pronounced.

I learned (and followed up with research on similar studies) that there are many aspects of surveys which produce different results. My own experience with surveys is less than enthusiastic... I think of surveys as more of a nuisance and something I rarely ever take the time to answer thoroughly. Probably the most irritating aspect was one of the worst college professors I've had. He handed out our semester-end surveys and jokingly said "write what you want, I'm tenured." Besides being irritated as heck at the comment, I felt my input was futile and didn't care to give the survey much effort. I'm sure most of us have had times where we just put anything to get a survey over with...

5.2 - "the golden gripe"

P.441 discusses when a message begins to represent a symptom of a problem. The example used is of upper level management creating committees, then ignoring their recommendations. The gripes of committee members being rejected may damage company culture.

When working in networking, we had a series of customer complaints of network interruptions. Our tests showed nothing, but upper level management was eager to show progress and set up a regional template team to revamp configurations and standardize things. We met for weeks and restructured templates. When it came time for implementation, all the individual sites refused to use them. The customer complaints have subsided a bit with management's promises, so they ignored our complaints. Weeks of overtime work for nothing... very frustrating. :(

5.1 - Reputations

P.439 discusses on how a company's reputation may be built from multitudes of interactions over time.

This rings true from my recent experiences helping a friend's fledgling business. It takes years to build a solid reputation and much less to undermine your efforts. For 3 years, my friend has worked to put customers first. On one occasion, he shipped out an order before leaving on vacation. He sent an email saying he would be out of town for a week and copy/pasted the tracking number. There was a problem with the shipment and the customer never received it... so despite being notified that my friend was on vacation... proceeded to leave messages and send multiple emails.

Just as videos go viral, so do the words of an irate customer. The customer went on two industry-oriented forums and started bad mouthing the lack of communication and disrespect he felt at the hands of my friend, going as far as insinuating that he had been ripped off. Of course, the posts were slanted to make it appear as though my friend was purposely ignoring the customer's calls/emails. Many people jumped on, saying "omg, that's absolutely horrible customer service... I'd never purchase or recommend anyone to purchase from them".
While the matter was cleared up, the customer publicly apologized, but the damage was already done. It takes so much to build up a reputation, and so little to bring it down...

4.5 - "Too Much Information" -Duran Duran

Chapter 3 discusses a section on flow of information and the difficulty in determining the right amount of information that's useful to an employee.

Through my blogs, I've expressed a general distaste for large corporations, superfluous information passed around, and useless meetings. Information control is a great way of saving wasted time, effort, and money; however, it is much easier said than done. No matter who conducts an analysis, different people will have different perspectives on what information is valuable and pertinent. As such, it seems that we are doomed to swim in a vast sea of CC's, bulletins, and FYI's. :(

The book mentions the development of [i]knowledge management[/i], but for the reasons listed above, I fail to see how any person or group of people may adequately determine what is "quality information". At least it'd be a step in the right direction...

Any thoughts on the matter?

4.4 - Efficient vs. Effectiveness

On page48, the book begins to outline Chester Barnard's perspective on effectiveness and efficiency. When Bernard discusses the extremes of quadrant 1 (low effectiveness & efficiency) and quadrant 4 (high effectiveness & efficiency), the first thing that came to mind was our department meetings vs. client meetings.

Our department meetings definitely fall into the low effectiveness and efficiency. Meant to get everyone on the same page, team members begrudgingly show up at 9am Monday morning to discuss how their projects are going. A large majority of the information regurgitated is redundant since it mimics our project tracking software. Anyone that needs to know about a project is already in the loop. Likewise, politics tend to show up as team members begin arguing about completely asinine an inconsequential details. Most participants sit on their laptops ignoring what's going on... sometimes typing up a bus244 blog. We waste 1-1.5 hours of our workday, leave annoyed, then repeat the process the next week.

In client meetings, there is a completely different approach. Meetings are conducted very cleanly and information is outlined in a detailed format. Both parties are interested in the relevant subject matter, so every minute is used judiciously. Because each party has much to benefit and much to lose from the deal, the end result is often highly efficient and effective.

4.3 - My furniture is where??!

I thought I'd share my experiences with the most commonly stereotyped "bureaucratic job".... a government job. :)

It was a memorable summer... my first real job. I was working in an army base in Hawaii in the housing office. Due to scheduling issues and time of shipment, roughly 70% of incoming service members arrived on the island with their household belongings still in transit. This shipping process would take 2-4 weeks on average. On a given in-processing, a soldier would have to stop at up to 10 offices to get all their assignments and living arrangements set up. Often, our office was the last stop.

My job was to tell these already disgruntled soldiers that their stuff would not be here for weeks and ask if they'd like to use our complimentary furniture rental service. This crappy furniture included beds from WWII (1940's)!!! Needless to say, they were not happy and I often took the brunt of their frustrations. My typical process would be to take the soldier's furniture request down to a piece of form paper, then input it into the computer. I'd then print it out on 4-ply paper, sending 3 sheets off to different departments - warehousing, housing, and processing. When a delivery was done, I'd have to confirm proper quantities, then re-print 4 sheets to schedule a pick-up on a given day.

Through the layers of processes and paperwork, it was relatively efficient. Less than 1% of processing had errors. The bureaucracy in place kept things very organized and things got done. Unfortunately, there was a tremendous amount of redundancy and no one seemed to be happy with the arrangement... workers disgruntled and soldiers frustrated with the whole ordeal.

Ultimately, while the process was effective enough, the bureaucracy had one major flaw. There was no vehicle for change. Process was so set that the only metric of success was efficiency. It was readily apparent to all involved that the system (or set of many systems) must be revamped; however, it never happened. In-processing needed to be synched with cargo shipment so rental furniture was not needed. It frustrates me to even write this, thinking of how bad a system can be put together through many add-ons and ill-fitting band-aid solutions. Once again, the principles of bureaucracy are noble and effective in nature, but need to be implemented with a sense of flexibility to adapt to situations.

4.2 - Bureaucratic mumbo jumbo

I never knew the origins of the concept of bureaucracy. Truth be told, I never cared. Turns out, it's more interesting than I thought. Reading Weber's perspectives, I can see how it's well-intentioned. There are many inherent strengths throughout Weber's points; however, implementation has proven to not be so straightforward.

Most notable of my dislikes of what many would consider a bureaucratic process is the concept of the problem ticket. When we have a problem with our computer, we open a problem ticket. We can't just call deskside support directly... no, that'd be too convenient. Instead, we log on to an archaic web interface, filling out literally 2-3 dozen boxes of information. This form is then sent to a queue in Brazil. Hopefully (but not always), Brazil operations team sends it to the proper queue back in San Jose. This team then fills out accounting forms for which deskside personnel will take care of which tickets and at what time. Deskside workers rarely show up on time, not due to lack of effort, but because one employee with a hard problem pushes their entire schedule back. After fixing a problem that takes less than 5 minutes, the deskside person needs to fill out a long form stating specifically what was the problem and what the solution was. The form then gets routed back to the ticket initiator, then finally back to the deskside person to close it out. A couple total man-hours of work for less than 5 minutes of actual work.

Looking at this process, it is easy to see the noble intent. We open a ticket to properly note what the problem is and not cause confusion. Rather than deskside fielding calls, Brazil operations team acts as a dispatcher to facilitate this process so deskside may focus on their job. Deskside's scheduling forms are a method of accounting for their work and claiming labor against the specific department who use them. Finally, both the originator and deskside personnel need to fill the forms to ensure a proper resolution has taken place and a paper trail in place in case of any future discrepancies...

Yes, in each instance, it makes sense. Yet, all together, it makes for a horribly inefficient system that slows things down. I got confused a couple times just typing this out! Not only do we lose the man-hours dealing with the processes, but also the downtime of machines waiting to be serviced... while the ticket is being routed from queue to queue. Weber has noble thoughts, but bureaucracy is difficult to implement well.

Don't get me started on my government job...

4.1 - Structure clash

Physical organizational structure is an integral part of business; however, there are often times where drawing these lines impede progress. In addition to clearly defined departmental structure, our work takes assorted workers from across the corporation and groups them into "regional teams" and "global teams". These teams would meet to work on overarching projects and creating templates for technical consistency. Likewise, our managers also tried to instill a sense of collaboration among workers and open sharing of information and resources.
It all sounded great in theory... in practice, it was (for lack of better words) crap. While the ideals were in place to share resources and work together, the accounting systems were archaic and every department needed to show xx amount of work hours per project. Managers refused to let employees work on cross-department projects unless it was done in overtime(salaried, so no extra pay). In essence, the metrics in place that gauge a manager's effectiveness and accountability directly negated the spirit of cooperation they tried to preach.

IMHO...

Since I've started using online communication, context and emotions have been a persistent issue. Decoding context has definitely progressed through adoption of emoticons and slang.

What I still have problems with is determining how to interpret and/or portray level of emotion. It's easy to show happiness as :) & very happy as :D However, there are many slangs that are just overboard. People use ROFL, LMAO, or LOL anytime something funny is posted. This ranges from very mildly amusing & trying to be polite... to absolutely hysterical. In a way, these slang terms seem to dumb down emotions into generic stereotypes. The general idea is there, but the subtle nuances are absent.

IMHO, as we continue the trend towards online and remote communication technologies, we must also find additional methods of bringing the humanistic traits into our conversations.

Email Schizophrenia

In keeping with the theme of information overload, I took a count of my mutliple email identities...

Just for basic email purposes, I have to maintain a minimum of 3 accounts. One for pure work stuff. One for emails with close friends/family. One for ordering stuff (since this accrues more spam) and for things like my ebay account, etc. I had to setup another email account for this class. I have another two for my family's business and my friend's business that I help out with. That's 6... and I have a few other lesser used ones such as my personal website email, etc. It's hard enough trying to keep my work email clean without performing maintenance on all the others.

While the power of increased communication is undeniable, it'd be interesting to see how much time is wasted on dealing with this overdose on a daily basis... whether redundant information, spam, misdirected emails, useless meetings, pointless conference calls, etc.

The Firm Handshake

Commenting on a fellow classmate's blog, I realized that the advent of communication advancements have not restricted my human interaction much. I still try to conduct much of my business in person, hang out with friends, etc. I also realized that this was a conscientious decision on my part. I purposefully look to foster human interaction. In the old days, business was conducted with a sense of purpose, good relationships, and no substitute for a firm handshake. While I embrace many of today's technologies, I've found that many relationships have become superficial in nature. In my opinion, a face-to-face meeting solidifies a business relationship and loyalty far more than half a dozen emails.

Communication trends show less and less human interaction, which actually makes me sad. Things like gas prices affect this, curtailing business travel. Instead of meeting face to face, it's an email or phone call. There are countless aspects of communication advancements that are beneficial, but I believe this particular example is a step backwards. It appears that we are trading a handful of strong meaningful business relationships for dozens of average relationships.

Sometimes more communication is bad...

Critical Mass Theory

Critical mass theory focuses on the number of users necessary for a communications media to become successful. This has shown to be a sound theory, evidenced in the exponential rise of users once a communications media method has reached critical mass... whether in telephones, faxes, emails, myspace, etc...

I'd like to share my experiences with what (I guess) would be called "diminishing returns theory" of communication media. In my work, there are several people on a team and cross teams that I communicate with regularly. To work quickly with these people, we all installed Yahoo Messenger. This worked well since we could communicate instantly without other people interrupting our work. Months pass and people get added slowly. Soon, my list has 40 employees on there. Trying to get work done and people message ask me the most random questions. It finally got to the point where I retired my yahoo ID and set up a new account.

Basically, critical mass was really low since it was a matter of convenience. The whole point was to be able to talk to key personnel while working on critical projects and avoid others who would either get in the way or cause distraction. Phone was not an option, since a lot of work was done in computer labs, and email was just far too slow. Once the list got past a certain size, random questions, comments, requests from people not on the project all negated the value of this form of communication media and I had to restart.

This is similar to the plague of email avalanche that infects most of us. Email is a valuable tool, but over use of the CC button, spam email, work items that chain letters forwarded by my mom... there is a point of diminishing returns where the value of some communication media declines with over-usage.

Ayo! I'm tired of usin' technology!

The beginning of Chapter12 discusses the differences between use of "technology" as a term in its modern and historical definitions. A really good passage discussed the idea of how technique defines technology and people have shifted technology to denote machine advancement.

In software programming, there are often times where people get so wrapped up in making the code work and look good, that they lose sight of the goals of the project. Namely, they lose site of the human problems that the software is trying to solve. We live in a technical area and many of us have technical jobs. It isn't a mystery why we've shifted so far into focusing on efficiency and technical aspects.

My old boss told me that when he first started working, a problem was dealt with by re-evaluating what their goals were, possible alternatives, and finally working on it. Today, he complains, everyone's solution is to throw more hardware at it. People get so wrapped up in the technicality of things, that they lose site of the big picture.

Fishing Ethics?

I've recently been involved in some discussion over fish & game legislation. Not the typical MBA subject matter, but ethics played a key role.

There are several controls in place to control over-fishing. Bag limits are one of the most prominent methods. For example, a bag limit basically says that "for rockfish, a person is allowed to keep 10 per day". Many believe that while bringing home 10 rockfish per day is excessive and while legal, not ethical, since it hurts the rockfish population and their ability to recover. Others maintain that if it's legal, then people should be allowed to take as many fish(X) they are allowed... and if the amount is considered excessive, then bag limits should be lowered to a proper level.

This case is a good example of how people define "ethical" take in many different lights. Some think that legal is tantamount to ethical... and if there's a gap, then the law should be changed. Others think that anything more than 1 or 2 fish is considered greedy and unethical. Others say they have bigger families, so 3 or 4 fish is completely fine, but any more is unethical. The commercial contingent feel that everyone has a right to eat fish and they provide that service... so they can take as many as they want and it is ethical.

This is one case where there is a definite trend towards conservation; however, there will always be strong supporters on either end of the spectrum. Ethics is a tricky subject - depending on perspective, a single simple act maybe considered completely ethical, completely unethical, or in the ambiguously gray area.

Ethics as a class?

A few classmates have blogged about Ethics as a business class. I thought I'd offer my two cents on the issue...

Ethics is undoubtedly important in business as it shapes how workers deal with each other, partners, suppliers, customers, etc. Ethics represent a set of values with some buffer in either direction. Different countries, regions, and companies possess different value sets. Once a company identifies the standards and definitions of ethics they wish to portray, they may work to alter employee behavior through rewarding positive ethical behavior and admonishing (or punishing) unethical behavior.

IMHO, I don't believe that ethics should be treated as it's own class. As with any value system a company wishes to instill within its company's culture, the real focus should be motivation. Through motivation, organization, and communication, a company may identify and develop a code of company ethics. My last blog depicted a business where the company encouraged unethical behavior. I believe that if they wished to, this company could easily address these behaviors. Unfortunately in business, ethics often takes a backseat to profits.

Questionable Ethics

Not sure the point of this particular blog. This story is just the first thing that came to mind when the topic of ethics came up. My cousin was a finance manager at a large Chevrolet dealership. Last I talked to him, he had a new job. The following is a paraphrase of his story:

"My normal job would be to take a 70-yr old lady, persuade her that she needs the car, and convince her that she can afford a brand new minivan on her meager social security income. Then I'd go call the loan financiers and lie to them, stating that she had a steady 4k a month income. Whatever it took to get that car out the door and commissions in my pocket. One day a lady came back to me in tears and it made me take a look at myself in the mirror. I told myself I'd try to do the right thing... it wasn't easy. Not impressed by my new approach, my dealership laid me off two months later."

I'm not saying car dealers are bad people, but this is a prime case of an environment where monetary gain reigns supreme over ethics. As my cousin depicted, questionable or downright unethical acts were the norm. For example, mechanics would break parts on purpose to split commissions with parts sales people. It's a mystery to me how such a large company can have such overt examples of unethical behavior without suffering repercussions...

Whose responsibility?

In the software development arena of Silicon Valley, off-shoring is a hot topic among developers. Often discussed with a sense of contempt, fear, and disdain, this reputation is not unwarranted. Business strategies for new software products are not considered complete unless an off-shoring alternative is included. Jobs are being sent overseas with increasing frequency as companies assess the potential savings.

Directors express tinges of guilt as they lament "we would have loved to keep the jobs in the US, but the cost savings is too great..." Who is really to "blame" here? Does a company owe anything to the country to keep jobs domestically, even if it incurs a greater cost? Is it the government's job to step in and do something? I've heard so many contrasting views, it's hard to determine which POV is "right".

Convergence confusion

Page 384 discusses forces of convergence and expansion of Western influence throughout the globe. One interesting case experienced as an IBM employee was that of working with our India contingent. Traditional IBM employee structure is based on band levels (i.e. 6, 7, 8). It is not uncommon for someone to remain as a band 8 for quite a while as there is considerable range in pay scale. As long as the pay keeps going up, the band level is often regarded as relatively insignificant.

In pushing much of our "Western" corporate culture to India, many ideals transferred and were accepted well. The band system was not. Looking into the situation, IBM found that for many Indian employees, a promotion of increased band level weighed more heavily than the monetary increases. As a result, our India IBM outsourcing locations adopted a different band scale (i.e. 6a, 6b, 6c). After implementation, worker satisfaction increased.

Even with a sense of heightened global awareness, we must still remain vigilant to learn more about our domestic and foreign counterparts.

Metaphorically speaking...

There are many phrases that people utilize in attempts to metaphorically define work - as a war, team, family, organism, machine, ship, person, etc. While these are good at simplifying and grouping concepts, they often take very different meanings depending on one's perspective. An engineer may appreciate a machine analogy, since it focuses on efficiency, whereas an HR manager may find it cold and insensitive.

A couple years ago, I took a class at work focused on developing management/leadership skills. This class specifically urged us not to use metaphors in the workplace. The example of likening one's department to a ship was listed as a prime example of what not to do.

Our class also emphasized the importance of clear/consise language in a leadership role. Just as in describing an organization, metaphors are widely used and often integrated into our everyday vernacular. However, there are times where metaphors interfere with clear communication.

Ironically, my manager at the time used metaphors and hyperboles to a fault. While enthusiastic, his points were often muddled in attempts to tie his message in with his chosen metaphor. Even worse, our team was international and included employees in Brazil, China, and Germany. As a result, his message was further diluted and muddled. I recall several instances where peers conferred with me to decipher what exactly he was talking about.

"Making the invisible visible"

Paradoxically, as communication tools advance in abilities and power, they are increasingly taken for granted. Over the last decade, we've experienced a veritable revolution of communication technology. Today, people may contact each other instantly through phone conversations, emails, instant messengers, etc. While these tools allow great potential in organizational communication, more is not necessarily better.

In my work experience, communication misuse has proven to be the greatest detriment to productivity. These instances of misuse include meetings that are called for the sake of having a meeting and conference calls that waste hundreds(or thousands) of workhours at a shot for minimal value. On a given week, I typically have in excess of 20hrs of scheduled meetings and conference calls. Most of these, I don't need to be a part of. One of the worst instances of communication misuse is exemplified by the overwhelming dread of coming back from vacation to the inevitable mountain of emails. Sifting through them, I'd estimate that roughly 90% of my work emails have little to no value.

The real measure of communication success is effectively matching the message, the medium, and the target audience. Too little emphasis is placed on this objective.