Category Archives: Comm 292

Alibaba’s Successes

My interest into Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOP) was sparked through reading my classmate Jude’s blog post about Disney’s ESOP for extrinsically motivating their employees.  Upon further digging into business news, I was brought to the attention that Chinese company Alibaba is also notorious for paying its employees through stocks.  In Jen Wieczner’s article on Fortune, she writes that through motivating employees with ESOPs, Alibaba is able to receive and ship more packages than US e-commerce giants Amazon and UPS, even with fewer employees on payroll.

While investors in Wieczner’s article doubted Alibaba’s ability to overtake Amazon and USP, I believe that more companies in North America should take note and introduce ESOPs into their employee motivation programs.  ESOPs are typically used to reward employees if the company’s stock price goes up.  While many companies still rely on motivational tactics such as bonuses and pay raises to encourage employees to push the extra mile, my personal experience in the workforce pushes me to say that most employees, especially the ones where their roles in the company are not very significant, will not push the extra mile for the company to succeed as an owner would.  So instead of constantly trying to motivate employees to act like owners, companies should follow Alibaba’s success and essentially make their employees owners through ESOPs.

Word Count: 220

Sources:

http://fortune.com/2016/02/05/alibaba-stock-pay-disturbing/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/judearafeh/2017/03/27/disneys-happily-ever-after/

 

“Change” – J.Cole’s Motivation

Rap music has historically been largely associated with gangs, drugs, money, and sex.  When J.Cole’s album 4 Your Eyez Only was released on December 9, 2016, it marked an addition to the conscious hip-hop movement, a movement of rap away from the stereotypical topics discussed above.  Specifically, during the hook of Track 6 “Change,” J.Cole raps “I know you desperate for a change let the pen glide, but the only real change come from inside.”

What J.Cole is essentially saying is that although people often look for changes in their lives through external sources, such as the “pen glide” of the signing of a check or contract, J.Cole believes that real change comes from within the individual.

This line reminded me of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in OB.  When I look at J.Cole’s development as an artist from his 2014 album 2014 Forest Hills Drive to his new 2016 album, it is clear that J.Cole not only superficially raps about real change coming from inside of a person, but that he actually walks his talk.  In 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J.Cole relied on producing crowd popular songs such as ”Wet Dreamz,” a song about sex, and “G.O.M.D.,” a song about making it big in Hollywood.  Contrastingly, in his new album, J.Cole deviates from the stereotypical sex and money lyrics and instead, raps about loving his wife, loving his new-born child, and conscious topics regarding the murder of his close friend “James McMillian Jr.”

J.Cole’s new album demonstrates that he is no longer motivated by the “pen glide” of checks or contracts, rather, his change in musical style symbolizes his maturity in the rap game, and that his motivation is now shifted to his relationships with family and friends; motivation that comes from inside.

Word Count: 293

 

Sources:

“J. Cole – Change.” Genius. N.p., 09 Dec. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128

 

Image Source:

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2015/12/03/03-j-cole.w529.h529

Samsung, Take Note! (out)

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was one of the hottest phones in the market when it was released in August 2016.  The phone was so hot that several of them caught fire in the hands of consumers.  This led to Samsung’s decision in October to issue a worldwide recall of the Note 7; resulting in a $5.5 billion loss.  Now, just five months later, Samsung has made yet another decision: resell the refurbished devices to recoup losses.

Samsung’s decision can be explained through the Six-Step Rational Decision-Making Model.  With the problem of a $5.5 billion loss identified, the second step for Samsung would be to identify the criteria.  In Samsung’s case, their criteria would include any additional expenses needed to rebuild its loss, and customer feedback.  As the refurbishment of recalled devices is less costly than the development of a new device to replace the Note 7, Samsung valued the decision to simply refurbish and resell the Note 7 over other alternatives.

Was this decision ethical from a long-time Samsung user’s perspective?  Personally, I view Samsung’s decision as unethical.  From Exhibit 12-6 on page 435 of Nancy Langton’s Organizational Behavior textbook, Samsung’s decision to keep costs low and resell recalled devices is largely considered a decision motivated by self-serving interests.  On the contrary, I believe that an alternative that Samsung may have passed over would be to face the situation and develop a newer, safer, device to compete in the tech market.  This would have placed Samsung back in the competition with the other tech giants.  But for now, the decision may have further lowered the market confidence in Samsung, digging Samsung deeper into its problem.

Word Count: 276

 

Sources:

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 435

Reuters, Thomson. “Samsung to sell refurbished Galaxy Note 7s after battery fire recall.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Image Source:

http://donthatethegeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/note7_samsung-fire-hed-2016-1

 

Generational Differences for Workplace Communication

Being in a very unique group bordering the millennial and centennial generations, I was inspired to further investigate the millennial generation in the workforce after recently reading my colleague Cindy Olsson’s blog post.  In her post, Olsson focused on the differences that millennial generation holds in their expectations for the workplace in comparison to the expectations held by older generations.  As she writes, the values of baby boomers lie mainly in the basic needs towards the bottom of the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs pyramid, whereas in contrast, millennials put greater value on upper ends of the pyramid, the self-actualization, and esteem needs of the workplace.  With the growth in technology and differences in values being the main separation between the generations, the main methods of communication between the generations will certainly be affected.

Through my Google investigation, I came across Sarah White’s article where she discussed the workforce generational diversity and the expectations of communication.  She wrote that because the workforce is rapidly being mixed with millennials and older generations whose lives have not revolved around digital communication as the former did, communication tension is caused and employers must adapt to ensure that both generational expectations are met.

Although face to face communication is the most direct form of communication, I believe that verbal communication is slowly being phased out by the increasing number of millennials in the workforce.  Through digital communication, all communication is being recorded digitally through emails, text messages, and more.  This may result in the loss of intimacy in communication with the decline in face to face interaction.

But digital communication may be beneficial for the workplace.  The most obvious benefit is the increase in communication speed.  It takes a person an average time of 90 seconds to read and respond to a text message[i].  When time is a factor to the success of a company, digital communication hails in comparison to the lengthy times of meeting up for a conversation.  In addition to an increase in communication speed, the ability to proofread every sentence before pressing the send button will inevitably increase the accuracy of information.  With both the speed and accuracy of communication being essential for maintaining strong organizational behavior and lines of communication, I believe that as a workforce, we will soon see that digital communication will triumph over traditional communication as the main source of communication.

[i] https://onereach.com/blog/45-texting-statistics-that-prove-businesses-need-to-start-taking-sms-seriously/

 

Word Count: 394

 

Sources:

  • “45 Texting Statistics That Prove Businesses Need to Take SMS Seriously.” OneReach Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
  • “Millennials and Their Expectations – Cindy Olsson.” Cindy Olsson. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
  • White, Sarah K. “Millennials are shaking up workplace communication.” CIO. CIO, 13 June 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

 

Image Source:

 

 

OB is the Problem of the Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks have now struggled in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 47 years to win the prized Stanley Cup. The team came close three times, in 1982, 1994, and most recently, 2011, with the last two resulting in city riots. Why does it appear that the Canucks never seem to reach the prize?  The problem is not a matter of luck, it is a matter of poor organizational behavior within the Canucks team.

I recently read Patrick Johnston’s article in the Province about former Canucks player David Booth still having frequent nightmares about his former coach, John Tortorella, years after they both had left the organization.  This example reminded me of the Five-Stage Model for team formation in Chapter 6 of Nancy Langton’s Organizational Behaviour textbook.  To me, the fact that David Booth still detests his former coach demonstrates that the Canucks have never actually left the storming stage, where team members are constantly in conflict.  For a team to win the Stanley Cup, they must have reached the performance stage where team members have sorted out roles, so they can all contribute at the highest ability to the common team goal.

While this example of team storming may account for the Canucks’ lack of success in recent years, I believe that Page 218 of the OB textbook provides a better explanation for why the Canucks have lacked success throughout their 47-year history.  The problem is that the Canucks management has relied too heavily on their aging team leaders as opposed to building a young, well-balanced team.  Because of Canucks management regularly relying on their aging leaders to lead the otherwise mediocre teams, aged leaders such as Trevor Linden who played with the club until he was 38, Markus Naslund who played until 35, Roberto Luongo who played until 35, and the Sedins who are still with the club at age 36 end up being the only notable team members throughout team history while the others remain largely unnoticed.

I believe that the problem of the Canucks is a result of the poor team building by team management.  The team hires coaches and players with conflicting interests, and the team relies too heavily on the contributions of aging veterans while neglecting the contributions of young stars (example being the trading of future goaltending star Cory Schneider away to the New Jersey Devils).  Although this method of team building has led to developed the legacies of several Canucks hockey legends, this method, in my opinion, is an ineffective way of building a Stanley Cup contending team.

Word Count: 427

Sources:

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128

“Henrik Sedin.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

Johnston, Patrick. “Does David Booth still have nightmares of John Tortorella?” The Province. N.p., 16 July 2016. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

“Markus Näslund.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

“Roberto Luongo.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

“Trevor Linden.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

 

Image Source:

http://s227.photobucket.com/user/Meg_8_2007/media/Markus%20Naslund/63MarkusNaslundwasagreatmentortoHenrikandDanielSedinwhentheycamefromSwedentoVancouver.jpg.html

My Experience with Motivators

My most effective method for learning and understanding material is to see how the material is relevant in my life.  After learning about intrinsic and extrinsic motivators in Chapter 4 of Nancy Langton’s Organizational Behavior textbook, I wanted to expand my understanding of this topic by browsing the web.  There, I read Merge Gupta-Sunderji’s article in the Globe and Mail “Why money is not an employee motivator.”  Like the title suggests, the article is about how once employers pay their employees appropriately at the competitive market wage, employees are satisfied and money no longer motivates them.  Instead, employees look towards other motivators intrinsically such as a sense of achievement, and recognition for achievement.

I found her insights most relevant and easily understandable when I connected it to my current work situation as a server for a restaurant.  As a server, I am paid at a wage lower than the regular minimum wage where a large portion of my actual earnings come gratuities.  Although a logical assumption would be to maximize my earnings by serving larger tables, I personally find happiness and motivation for my job from other factors.  These other factors are my intrinsic motivators, and they include satisfaction from seeing the smiles of happy customers, and positive recognition through the comment cards that my customers fill out after their visit.  If money was a motivator for me, I would serve as many large parties as possible, as their large bill would mean more money in gratuities for me.  But when serving large parties, I lose the personal connections that I form with small tables of four.  Because I have reached a state of content with my financial wellbeing, money is no longer a motivator and I would rather serve small tables, where as a server communicating with my customers, I can more easily form conversations with customers, learn about their backgrounds, and overall getting to know them on a more personal level.  This ultimately satisfies me and makes my job more rewarding than simply making as much money as possible through flipping tables at a high rate.

 

Sources:

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128

Merge Gupta-Sunderji, “Why money is not an employee motivator,” Globe and Mail, January 30, 2017, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/why-money-is-not-an-employee-motivator/article33755286/

Image Sources:

http://i1.wp.com/www.rightattitudes.com/blogincludes/images/Extrinsic_Motivation_and_Intrinsic_Motivation.png

 

Word Count: 348