Category: Uncategorized

My first head teacher in my primary school left really impression to me. Not only because she was my first head teacher but also because she helped me set up the concept of reward system. Every week our class would hold a contest on Friday afternoon. The questions that would appear on the contest were all assigned to all the pupils on Monday of the week. During the whole week, we struggled to find the correct answers to those questions. Those were not questions like elementary algebra or word spelling. We needed to search for “what is the highest mountain in the world”, “who invented the first telescope” and so on. The process was a lot of fun actually for a first year child. And on Friday, pupils would be assigned into 10 groups and answer the questions that teacher raised by turns. The final winner would get some candy and some stationary stuff, such as cute pencils and little notebooks. Though now seems to be quite simple and crude, it was a huge attraction to children. Everyone wanted to get the reward so we all spared no effort searching for the information and memorizing the answers. Friday afternoon became something so special to our class despite being the end of the week.

Though I cannot remember what exactly my teacher once asked, I do remember the excitement after winning the prize and the frustration when we failed. Now I realize that was a such an exemplified execution of reward power. Reward power is the power that achieves compliance based on the ability to distribute rewards that others view as valuable. Without the attraction of the prize, no children would be so glad to spend so much time doing things they had only little understanding in. Though curiosity might incite us to search for unknown knowledge, it would not last long enough for almost three school years. I have to say that was a really positive circulation. Children learned knowledge out of the textbooks and developed the sense of achievement. Therefore, reward power is really beneficial to both individuals and organization. Even young children are able to participate in it and make it to be a positive model.

This blog is inspired by Yuzuru Hanyu’s latest performance during the 2017 ISU World Championships. For those who don’t know him, here is a brief introduction. Born in December 1994, Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater who competes in the men’s singles discipline. He is the 2014 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion, a four-time Grand Prix Final champion. Also he has set the world records for 11 times and is the current record holder in all the three of Short Program, Free Skate and Total Scores for mens’ singles figure skating. He just won his second world champion on April 1st during the World Championships this year and has broken the world record, which was also built by him, in Free Skate with 223.20 points. So as you can see, this young man is an absolute dominator in his field.

(picture from Golden Skate)

However, the recent competitions did not go well on him due to his illness and injuries. His Short Program on the Championships was a huge failure since he did not complete it as expected. Ranked only No.5 made all his fans worried about the following Free Skate. However, Yuzuru alleviated all these concerns by his perfect performance. His performance reminds me of many concepts in OB we’ve learned, including values, attitudes and motivation. Due to the word limit, I will apply the personality concept only.

As a singles skater, Yuzuru can show his personalities during competition. According to The Big Five Personality Model, I find that he is a typical example of someone who has high scores in both conscientiousness and emotional stability.

(pic from Boundless.com)

A man with high conscientiousness tends to be responsible, organized and persistent. And with high emotional stability, he would tend to be calm and self-confident. These factors can all be found in Yuzuru. He was not frustrated by the failure in Short Program. Instead, he put all his efforts and energy into the coming Free Skate. His strong self-confidence made him believe in himself to complete the Free Skate perfectly even though mistakes happened before. When he was interviewed, he always replied with great determination and confidence. His persistent and achievement-oriented personality contribute so much to his performance on the formal competition. So many skaters are not able to deal with the pressure on stage. However, Yuzuru Hanyu made it. He completed all the jumps and actions flawlessly and broke his own and the world record again. Despite his perfect skills and ceaseless practice, which are indispensable for any successful skater, his conscientiousness and emotional stability is also the crucial point that leads him into such legendary success.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzuru_Hanyu

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Communication must be one of the words that I mention the most frequently when analyzing almost any cases, especially when doing the solutions stage. In the case project, our group was doing the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. One of the solutions we raised for our character, Chris Gardner, was using his skill as a salesman to convince his wife to stay with their family. How? By communication. Also, in one of my favourite movie, The Social Network, the main conflict between Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, is, to much extent, caused by the lack of communication. So how can communication influence on certain relationship and organization?

Communication, by definition, is the transfer and understanding of a message between two or more people. It is the foundation for many things that happen among groups and within organizations. Effective communication can have considerable positive effect on the organization. In contrast, ineffective communication can lead to problems, just like those appear in the movies. There are different barriers to effective communication from different aspects, so it is important for the leaders to avoid them. Therefore, I tried to find the corresponding barrier happen in both movie and figure out the way to solve the problem.

The barrier in The Pursuit of Happyness can obviously attributed to the communication under stress. Chris’ family are living under extreme pressure due to the financial instability. Chris and his wife cannot control their way to speak to each other which always turns their conversation into endless quarrels and conflicts. On the occasion, both of them should try to speak clearly, think carefully before stating and be aware of the nonverbal part of the communication. It is hard to stay composed under great pressure but only in this way can the problem be solved instead of getting worse.

And as for The Social Network, I think the main barrier to be the filtering. However, there is still little difference in this case because filtering means to occur when a sender manipulates the information so that the receiver is not able to receive the full information. The problem occurs in The Social Network, especially between Mark and Eduardo is more likely caused by the lack of communication and the distance between them. As a result, there is no enough platform for them to construct effective communication. To solve this, they need to stay in regular contact to try to make decisions together as the founder and co-founder of the company.

In conclusion, communication plays a significant role in both personal relationship and business organization. Effective communication can contribute much to the group and the organization.

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We are living in the era of information, which suggests that communication methods nowadays are far different from before – more and more electronic communications appear and even replace the former traditional ways.

Email is considered as one of the milestones on the revolution of communications. It saves so much time and cost of message delivery that it’s impossible now to imagine living without it. However, as every coin has two sides, there are also drawbacks. There are five most significant limitations listed in our textbook, including misinterpreting the message and overuse of email, the two that I do have a personal understanding in.

For misinterpreting the message, it seems like everybody has made mistakes in this part. From literally misunderstanding the message,(such as omitting a short key word or taking 24 hour mode as 12 hour mode) to decoding the sender’s message in a wrong way since everybody’s perception is not the same, all these misinterpretation can impede the work process. On this level, face-to-face communication seems to be the most efficient and effective way of message delivery, in my personal opinion.

And as for the overuse of email, firstly, tons of “junk emails” are sent everyday. I receive dozens of junk emails or advertising emails in my daily life and, though on most occasions they don’t matter that much, however, sometimes they do hinder my efficiency during work as if I got the notification of new email I have to go to check if there is anything important or urgent. Also, with the rapid development of online services, many people take email as a easy way to ask questions, however most information that has been asked frequently are already posted online. Emails like this are another aspect of overuse which also dramatically affects work efficiency.

In summary, email is a strong and useful way of communication, but its drawbacks also affect the work negatively in many ways. As a result, both senders and receivers need to pay attention to these limitations hence building the most efficient and effective way of communication.

Reference:

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/trey-gowdy-caught-using-his-own-private-email-server/22908/

Last summer, I got a full-time job at a local English-teaching organization in my hometown as a Teaching Assistant. I got the job because one of my friend who was once a student also a friend of the boss introduced me to the boss. After a not very formal interview, I was told to come to work in two days. Since it was not a really formal job, there was no contract. The boss told me that I could just help with the front desk issues at first, and if any students wanted to ask for help, I would go to help them. The work time was 9 to 5, 5 days a week. And my boss promised a month salary of $300, which was not that much considering the working time compared with similar jobs in other organization. But the job was more likely to be a experience instead of wasting my free time, so I didn’t show any disappointment about that.

However, things began to change in the second week. There was another TA, Harvey, who was assigned to give some tutorials sometimes, thus earning more than me. Sounds fair, right? However, due to trying to get his driving licence, Harvey began to be absent for most of his tutorial time. Therefore, my boss let me take his job. Actually I was pretty happy with that because the front desk work was so boring that I felt tired of it only in one week. So I gave tutorial classes probably three times a week, but I have to say it went well since students were interested of what I was talking about. And I felt kind of proud of myself, too, as a teacher.

However, my boss called me on the Sunday of the fourth week, telling me that he was so sorry but I did not need to come for the following days because they found a new TA. I was not that emotional at first but when I saw the money he transferred to my bank account I got really mad: it was only $200! That was so unfair since I did more work than our deal but got less paid! Especially when I knew that Harvey still got $300.

Such distributive injustice made this definitely the worst work experience of mine. And it shows how injustice in working environment will affect the employees.

As a movie fan, what can be more interesting than connecting your favourite movie to the OB knowledge you are learning? The current hit movie La La Land tells a touching love story of how a young couple,  Mia and Sebastian, pursue their dreams and maintain their relationship, which reminds me of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory.

The theory hypothesized that individuals possess a hierarchy of five needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. Apparently there is a progressively increase in transition. At the beginning of the movie, Mia works as a barista serving latte at a coffee shop in Los Angeles, but she dreams to be an actress therefore sparing no effort to attend tons of auditions but never getting chosen; Sebastian, a jazz musician who loves traditional jazz and dreams to open his own music bar, tries to play piano songs at a cocktail bar but gets fired.  As the hierarchy of needs shows, Mia and Sebastian have to do the jobs far from their dreams to satisfy their basic physiological and safety needs (i.e. hunger, shelter, security, etc.) , in other words, to make a living at first.

And as the story goes, the two dreamers encounter, mutually attract each other and then fall in love , which I think fulfills the social need, for example, emotional support. With opportunities showing up, both of the young couple get the chance to realize their dream: Mia’s short play at theatre wins recognition by a casting director, and Sebastian accepts Keith’s, his old acquaintance, invitation, starting to play pop jazz with his band and winning success. This is the period when individuals, after satisfying the first three phase of needs, begin to pursue higher level of needs: esteem and self-actualization. The process shows that human beings tend to keep pursuing higher-order needs after satisfying lower-order needs. After the lower-order needs are substantially satisfied, the higher-order needs become more dominant.

Though this is not the end of the movie, the process vividly illustrates how the hierarchy of needs theory influences people’s life. By the way, great movie, really worth seeing.

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References:

http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/

Mark Zuckerberg’s post on his Facebook implies that he still disagrees with the argument on that Facebook has influenced the result of the election as some pointed out that some fake news and hoaxes posted on Facebook have contributed to Donald Trump’s victory.

This post interested me since it shows the aspect which majority might seldom think about is how the information provided or disseminated by influential social network business can affect people’s mind. This just reminds me of William Randolph Hearst, who founded the era of Yellow Journalism. The biggest difference between Yellow Journalism and Facebook is that Hearst 100% intended to deceived the majority to achieve his goal while Zuckerberg has emphasized that 99% contents on Facebook is true rather than be made up as faked news and hoaxes. Should this be attributed to business ethics? Should weighty media-related business be regulated on the reliability of the information posted on it?

Besides Hearst and Facebook, another victim of the false information searched from Internet came from China. Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old Chinese college student died in April, 2016 after receiving the treatment of his synovial sarcoma at the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps which is recommended by the largest Chinese search engine, Baidu. The high success success treatment rate promoted on Baidu was faked and Wei accused Baidu of promoting faked medical information. This case was an explosion. Unlike Facebook and the election, a young man just died because of the information promoted on Baidu. It is no longer about business ethics only, but how the business truly take care of its clients.

How Facebook influenced the election cannot be convicted, and though truly it is not Facebook itself that promoted all the news and hoaxes, as the carrier and platform, it does have the responsibility to regulate those posts, or it could lead to unimaginable disaster.

References:

http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-on-facebooks-fake-news-and-the-election-2016-11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Wei_Zexi

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Technology Boom- Samsung gadgets malfunction just in time for the release of Apple’s flashy Iphone 7 and Google gadgets

As mentioned in Janice’s blog, Samsung is facing one of the most challenging moment during its history.

Released on August 19th, the latest product which should be the most competitive one against iPhone7, was reported with explosion issue from China on August 24th, even less than a week from the official release. As far as I know, Samsung did not give a prompt reply  until over 30 explosions took place by the end of August. It must be one of the most bleak month for the business. And finally, in early September, Samsung announced to recall the Note 7 smartphones which is also the largest worldwide recall in consumer electronic history. Sales are halted. Even the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared that it’s now illegal to use a Note7 aboard any aircraft under FAA jurisdiction.

http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-recall-714419/

https://www.cnet.com/news/why-is-samsung-galaxy-note-7-exploding-overheating/

Is that the end? Concede and compensate, apologize to the consumers, will the problem be solved so easily? Obviously not. First, Samsung has lost the most fundamental brand reputation, who will be willing to carry a bomb with him or her? It is not about the quality but about the safety of human’s life. Second, majority are really infuriated about the late reaction given by the company, it took such a long time to make an announcement which also caused to loss in customer loyalty.  Simultaneously, the competition in smart gadget market is always so intense. Besides the existing strong rivalries such as Apple and Huawei, Google has just launched their new Pixel smartphone while Amazon is working on its Echo, we cannot help thinking about that how the market would be during the temporary leaving of Samsung. The business will be suffering its most difficult time not only in how to beat the competitors but also in how to gain the loyalty back, which is far more challenging the former one.

References:

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/the-samsung-galaxy-note-7-fiasco-a-blow-by-blow-account-343955.html

https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-galaxy-note-7-fires-faa-flight-illegal/

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Re: Huawei’s new market approaches gain ground by Miranda Liu

This has been a really attractive blog to me as I, myself, is a Huawei smartphone user.

Truly, as Miranda has mentioned in her blog, Huawei was located as the more affordable but not that functional smartphone at the beginning. Since it is a Chinese brand, it’s quite easy to expand the local market due to the large population and the unbalanced income. As the market expanding, the company has become more and more ambitious, especially when it became the third smartphone giant in the world, only behind Apple and Samsung. It is quite impressive for a young business from a developing country, in my opinion. And as the development takes place, Huawei smartphone has become more functional and classic, both in external and internal. Its collaboration with Leica was really a shock to me since Leica is one of the best and even luxurious camera producer in the world, so it’s really hard to imagine that a company which positioned as affordable is making this far even other giants not doing it. To me, Huawei is more user-friendly than Samsung. Not compared with Apple is due to its own system, but in the area of Android, I think Huawei is doing a pretty good job, even better than Samsung and other brands.

http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-phones/p9/index.html

Now Huawei is sparing no efforts to expanding the global market and I think it goes pretty well, which may be different from Miranda’s opinion. As far as I know, many people in North America are getting interested in this brand and are willing to buy one. Seriously, why not? This is a phone with really high quality and more affordable price. And another problem Miranda has pointed is about the consumer loyalty. This is a really good point, I think. As a strange brand coming into the global competition, it will take time to form the consumer loyalty, I presume. However, hard not impossible, especially during such period while Samsung is troubling with their explosion and iPhone7 is doubted by majority, it seems that Huawei is really a good choice. And you know what, though it may take time to form the international brand loyalty, it can still make profits because of the existing market in China, again with such a large population and demand. Actually, Huawei has already gained its brand loyalty in China, I think, not only because its local support with the patriotism but because its highly cost-effective the phone itself.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33590875

Word count: 411

On Friday, September 30th, Rogers Media announces an overhaul of its magazines, which is unexpected but not that surprising, with Flare, Sportsnet, MoneySense and Canadian Business becoming exclusively available online as of January next year. As for other giants of publication in Canada, Maclean’s, the representative national publication lasting more than a century, will go from weekly to monthly, while Chatelaine and Today’s Parent will only be published six times a year.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rogers-retreats-from-print-in-radical-media-division-overhaul/article32163670/

Also, Rogers shows its intention of selling all of its business-to-business magazines as well as its French publications. Steve Maich, the senior vice-president of digital content and publishing at Rogers Media said that the company is already communicating actively with potential buyers and hopes to stop those sales before next year.

What factors cause such changes?  With the pervasive dissemination of digital access to large amount of resources, there is a gradual dwindling of the subscriber business across most of the printing media over the past five years. However, the loss in the number of subscribers is not the most serious problem, the bigger issue is due to the advertising revenues. While the demand for printing magazines decreasing, the advertising dedicated to magazine has started to fall dramatically in recent years, which can be the greatest reason of the bleak prospect for the paper media market. For example, print advertising revenue for Rogers Media sank more than 30 per cent during this one-year term.

The rapid decreasing revenue warns the giant publication. After realizing that maintaining the existing operation model will do no good but increasing its burden, Rogers Media decides to change its existing strategy and operation model – focusing more on the online subscribers and shutting down the printing editions. It is much wiser to transfer to digital format than simply closing them. It is a hard decision while it is a right decision. Keeping the original brand will not cut down its subscribers otherwise it may attract new subscribers (e.g. younger people) via online subscribing.

http://www.quertime.com/article/15-online-tools-to-create-e-magazines-ebooks-and-digital-newspapers/

Compared with tomes, piecemeal news is actually more acceptable for online reading. As digitalization is becoming more and more popular, shift in methods of transmission also caters to the consumers’ demand. Sticking to the old format rather than making changes will only lead the business to the end, while smart company would change its strategy in marketing promptly instead.

References:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-magazines-1.3785707

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/newsalert-rogers-announces-stop-printing-145450197.html

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/newsalert-rogers-announces-stop-printing-145450197.html

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