Category Archives: Uncategorized

Five things I’ve learned from 292:

Planning is not enough; we need to implement plans.

When we group started case project, we made a plan which decided the deadlines for each part of the project and our meeting dates. It was a detailed plan but we did not really follow it. There were always many issues that delay our meetings and group work. Gradually, we gave up the plan and worked inefficiently, which made us work on the project until the last minute. Therefore, I realized that it is more essential to follow and carry out the plan rather than make it then ignore it.

Emotional connection and interactions are essential.

Because of different hobbies and interests, I do not have many common topics with my group members. The conversations that I started were always about group work. I thought it was OK at beginning; however, I realized that group members need more than task-related communications; we need to build up trust and get to know more about others though interactions. Therefore, members are more willing to work with others and work efficiently.

Class preparation is helpful to your performance in class.

In every class, the prof introduced a large number OB theories and examples. It is hard to understand those theories without reading them before class since the prof only explained the key points of each theory rather than start from definitions. Therefore, good preparation helps us understand the examples given by the prof and answer questions or participate in discussions.

How to get on with others better

OB is a subject that is highly related to our daily lives. By writing blogs, I realized that we can see OB theories everywhere and we can apply what we’ve learnt from OB. For example, how to work with people-oriented colleagues and how to motivate friends with esteem needs. Even though we may not work in Human Resource department as a professional HR manager, we can still use the knowledge to deal with relationship issues we may meet and get along well with people around.

Presentation skills

There were two presentations in 292 class and both of them were recorded. It gave me opportunities to practice and see my performance. Also, It improved my public speaking skills, and I realized that my disadvantage is unnecessary tension and stress. I believe that my speaking will be much better if we can relax next time. In addition, I find that my presentation is a bit common and lacks highlights to attract audiences’ eyes. Therefore, I need to develop my own presentation style.

292Blog#6: Natural Leaders (Based on Mariana’s Blog)

Most people are eager to be leaders on their teams since leadership brings them money, status, reputation and power. However, we normally choose to be blind to the drawbacks of being a leader. This topic is touched upon by Mariana in her blog post “it gets lonely at the top”,(https://blogs.ubc.ca/mcmartinezrubio/2017/03/28/it-gets-lonely-at-the-top/ )and I would like to analyze it and give my own opinions.

Mariana indicated that opportunities come with a certain cost. Leaders have to help and motivate their subordinates and take responsibility for them, while no one is there to help leaders if they have problems. They need to make final decisions on their own, motivate themselves and find a balance between work and personal life. It is also true that some of them are isolated and conflicted with the personal relationship in workplaces.

From my view, I would say that not everyone was born to lead since he or she does not have the traits and the behaviors that can differentiate them from regular people. Unlike normal staff, leaders are supposed to know how to guide and manage others, which requires skills and abilities that not everyone has, such as public speaking skills and coping with stress by their own rather than take care of themselves only. Though some introverted people can deal with the relationship issues, it makes them uncomfortable somehow. Hence, leaders who do not have traits may feel helpless and stressed when they are in high positions. However, people with traits and behaviors that leadership requires may find these jobs easy, so they are not likely to feel lonely or overly challenged, and they are able to bear the burden of difficulties that leadership brings.

I am not saying that people with no leadership potential cannot be a leader; they can definitely get rid of their disadvantages by hard work and then be a good leader. However, this takes more energy and effort than it takes for natural leaders. Therefore, people should be aware of the disadvantages of being a leader and consider if they can deal with them easily, otherwise they will feel lonely at the top.

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Reference:

“It Gets Lonely at the Top” – Mariana’s Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2017, from https://blogs.ubc.ca/mcmartinezrubio/2017/03/28/it-gets-lonely-at-the-top/

292Blog#5: Note and Vote (Based on Jake Knapp’s blog)

It is quite frequent that many people do not have chances to express his or her opinion in a group discussion, and they tend to agree with the decision made by the majority even though they have different ideas. Google has applied ‘Note and Vote’ in its meetings and discussions in order to solve the problem. I would like to analyze the ‘decision making in a group’ and the ‘Note and Vote’ method based on Jake Knapp’s public blog post on the Internet. (https://www.fastcodesign.com/3034772/note-and-vote-how-google-ventures-avoids-groupthink-in-meetings)

The phenomenon I described at the start of my blog is called “Groupthink” in OB; people want to minimize doubts and achieve unanimity in a team by the agreement to group ideas. In order to get rid of groupthink, Google chose to apply “Note and Vote”. Basically, employees have a quiet time to write down their own opinions and then share them to the team. After all team members sharing their ideas, each member commits their votes for the idea on paper and explain why. Finally, the manager of the team makes final decision.

In this way, all the members can get involved into discussion and they are not likely to be influenced by others thoughts so groupthink can be avoided. Even though the final decision is made by the manager, everyone’s voice is heard so the decision may be more rational. In addition, the discussion can be more efficient. Managers set time limit for each part of discussion and require responses from everyone, which helps get more significant results compared to discussing together since people may rely on others and make no contribution.

Groupthink is a common issue that almost every team has, which impacts team’s decision making and development negatively. Though ‘Note and Vote’ is not a perfect solution, it helps avoid groupthink effectively. People can make slight changes to this method according to different situations, then apply it in discussions to get better results.

Word count: 321

Reference:

Knapp, J. (2014, August 26). “Note And Vote”: How Google Ventures Avoids Groupthink In Meetings. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from https://www.fastcodesign.com/3034772/note-and-vote-how-google-ventures-avoids-groupthink-in-meetings

292Blog#4: The Organizational Culture of Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota, Japan. It is the world’s first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year. In 2012, Toyota was the largest automobile manufacturer, ahead of the General Group. Many business students get to know Toyota from its famous production method called “Just in Time”. Most people think that the success of Toyota has benefited from this original way of production. From an OB view, I would say that the success is also related to its leadership and organizational culture.

Toyota pays much attention to the identification of organizational culture and the long-term goal of the company. New workers in Toyota are guided by an experienced current worker; they are told what to do and what the goal is, and they can get support from their mentors whenever they need it. This indicates the “Path-goal theory”: it is the leader’s job to assist followers in attaining their goals and to provide necessary direction to support and ensure that their goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the group or organization. Hence, employees are trained to keep the “Customer First” and “Quality First” principles in mind and work towards the company’s goal. In addition, leaders are selected from the internal recruitment rather than externally, to ensure the new leaders already know much about the company’s concepts, and they are able to transmit the concepts to subordinates.

The transmission of organizational culture can be an effective way to increase efficiency and quality. Once employees are assimilated to the culture, they are more willing to put effort into production, both for salary and faith in the company, and they are likely to get themselves involved into the company’s development. Therefore, organizations need to have a clear concept of culture to show both people and workers what they are working for.

Word Count: 308

Reference:

https://www.otherpapers.com/Business/Toyota-Motor-Corporation-Leadership-Style/33732.html

292 Blog#3 Diversity in a Team

( This blog is based on Lucian’s blog: Are people seeing the same “blue”? )

Last year, there was a popular picture which created heated discussion of individual perception. As Zane analyzed in his blog, such discussion illustrates that the differences between people are universal, and just because of this, making consistent decisions in a team is difficult.

Based on what Zane said, it is essential to understand members’ perceptions and personalities to improve team work. I strongly agree with his opinion since personality has significant influence on one’s decision making. For example, introverted people may have a conservative style while extroverted people dare to take risks. What is more, I think it is also important to consider people’s experiences and backgrounds when we evaluate their ideas. For instance, to give advice to a technology company, a consultant who graduated from a business school may consider the financial part more, and a consultant who has a degree in engineering may think from technology view. Therefore, understanding teammates is really important for a team’s harmony and efficiency.

For team members, understanding and support may help to deal with differences. Leaders also need to know how to make final decisions from an overall perspective. In the current background of a diverse working environment, differences among individuals brings both uniqueness and conflicts. If we can avoid weakness and make use of advantages, the team will be successful. Thus, leaders are supposed to consider every member’s ability, what clients want and the resources they have, so as to maximize the benefits of the whole group rather than any individuals.

Zhang, L. (2017, January 14). Are people seeing the same “blue”? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/zanezhang/2017/01/14/are-people-seeing-the-same-blue/

292 Blog#2 OB in Daily Life

Organizational Behavior is a science based on daily life. By studying OB, I find many behavior patterns that usually happen in daily life, which I hardly ever had noticed before, for example, the self-concordance, self-determination theory and reinforcement theory. When I correlate the theories with my life experience, I found that there is circular and cumulative causation among them.

I would like to use my learning experience of playing the violin to analyze the relationship of these theories. First of all, I am interested in playing violin so I am willing to practice and continue to study further. The time I spent and the energy I put into violin study increases the likelihood of success, and I do have good performance in playing violin. This is the positive outcome of high self-concordance. During study, whenever I have improvement, there will be a sense of achievement since I got a higher level of skills. This is what OB calls “intrinsic rewards”. Thus, intrinsic rewards motivated me to put in effort and achieve goals in every stage. These positive results are the driving force that inspire me to keep going. To say it in OB term, it is reinforcement theory.

From my own experience, I believe that interest is an important factor to one’s achievement. Personal goals and positive psychological suggestions are the driving force to further success. Hence, when we contribute tasks, we need to consider workers’ interests and personal goal settings. As a leader, it is important to guide workers to success in the initial stage, in order to make positive consequences. Thereafter, it is easy to have a virtuous cycle.

292Blog#1 Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs Applied to Google

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory concludes people’s needs as a hierarchy which includes physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs. I would like to analyze Google’s application of Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs, especially the social level, since I think it is the most successful part of Google’s way of motivation.

First of all, Google creates many opportunities for staff to get out of offices and join events. There are sport activities like wall climbing, beach volleyball, and hiking. Also, pajamas and costume parties are held regularly. These events help colleagues get to know each other and make friends. Personally, I believe these activities ensure workers’ happiness in Google since they have time to have fun rather than just focus on work. Enhancing happiness then improves the efficiency and quality of their work.

Besides events, Google is also famous for its unique and influential working environment. Google usually has nicely designed offices and lounges.

Google put the whole office green and decorate the office as a jungle.

Google’s Dr. Seussian Dublin Campus

Sometimes, the office even seems to be located near the sea

Budapest, Hungary

A conference room is set up like a tiny apartment and it also allows owners to bring their dogs inside.

Google’s Chelsea-based headquarters

These creative and comfortable working environment make people feel their company is like a home or a place worth spending their time in. No more spaces between office tables and designs encourage workers to release pressure and relax themselves

Belonging brings happiness in a job, and happiness decides the efficiency and quality of work. Google has good performance in working environment and building relationships between workers. With Google’s very successful formula for employee motivation, it is no wonder that Google is successful.

Dunner, C. (2014, April 10). 8 Of Google’s Craziest Offices. Retrieved February 5, 2017, from https://www.fastcodesign.com/3028909/8-of-googles-craziest-offices
The Google Way of Motivating Employees. (2014, September 25). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from https://www.cleverism.com/google-way-motivating-employees/

Worst Job

Last summer, I worked in an trust investment company as a manager assistant. My main duties are collecting information of customers, making appointment with customers and introducing new investment programs to them. The works are pretty easy; however, there are several reasons why I think it is the worst job:

Most customers in this company are old ladies. It is hard to explain things to the old since most of times they cannot understand what you said and you have to repeat for several times.
Managers are quite busy. I am supposed to follow them and do odd jobs so I cannot be work off until they finish works even it is time to go home already.
This is non-paid job.

Holiday Sales

This blog is based on Yolinda Jin’s blog “Thanksgiving or Black Thursday”

https://blogs.ubc.ca/yolindajin/2016/10/16/thanksgiving-or-black-thursday/

Thanksgiving just past and Christmas is coming. Promotions and advertisements in shopping malls changed from “Thanksgiving sales” into “Christmas discount”. It seems that whenever holidays come, holiday sales come together. Retailers usually use holiday sales to entice buyers into spending more so as to achieve their goals. Therefore, holiday marketing plays and important role in retailers’ sales strategy.

Sales in traditional holidays

“Retailers offer significant sales on the day of Black Friday, assimilating the specific shopping events and merging them into a series of materialistic paradise.”

This is what Yolinda Jin said in her blog and this is indeed the actual phenomenon in every holiday season. Retailers usually plan for the holiday sales several months before, design some special holiday offers and discounts to entice buyers into spending more. Sometimes they may not aim to increase revenue dramatically but just to increase sales volume to achieve annual sales goals or clear out inventories, especially for holidays in the end of the year like Thanksgiving and Christmas. What I agree with Yolinda is that, these sales attract people from family events. We are supposed to spend time with families in these traditional holidays, however, we pay more attention to shopping now. It is time to see the problems and realize that sales are not the core, but families and traditions are.

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/12/walmart-black-friday-2014-thanksgiving_n_6140442.html)

Festivals that retailers create

The description of crazy consumption in Yolinda’s blog reminds of a shopping festival in China, called Double 11 Shopping Carnival, which is an e-commerce holiday sales created in 2009. On the 11^th of November, the majority products are at discounts. It has become more and more popular these years and hit the record of sales revenue every year. In this year, the carnival just past two days before. One of the biggest e-commerce T-mall achieves 120.7 billion RMB ($17.73B) sales in two days. It is an astonishing number for sales and a great victory in the battle of holiday sales. However, to see it from consumers’ view, are these consumptions necessarily in need? Or we purchased just because we are overwhelmed by the atmosphere that retailers created?

china-singles-day

To summarize, holiday sales is an important part of businesses’ strategies. The success in holiday season may increase the market share and boost their annual sales. For retailers, they should take the opportunity. For consumers, they should have rational consumptions and pay more attention to the holiday itself when they enjoy the sales.

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Reference:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/china-alibaba-singles-day-1.3847390

To see the performance of Apple

On the 9^th of September, Apple released its new product iPhone7&Plus. On the 25^thof October, Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2016 fourth quarter ended September 24, 2016. It can be seen that the sales of iPhone7 decreased and the revenue of Apple declined. According to this situation, and together with the change in Apple’s product life cycle (as my classmate mentioned in his blog https://blogs.ubc.ca/lucasjwong/), I would like to give some analysis from my point view.

mac-apple-wallappers-building-applications-that-sell212-1024x640

Apple’s serious problems:

Low production capacity cannot satisfy the large quantity of demand.

Every time Apple releases its new products, consumers usually cannot get them in a short time and even though some of consumers booked it before. iPhone7 can be a good example. Both online and in-store storage is running short especially for the Iphone7 Plus.

The PODs of Apple seem to be vanished these years.

All smartphone brands are trying to improve phones in the same way. For physical features, less weight, a larger size of screen and a longer battery life. For technology, Android is getting better and is able to compete with IOS. At the same time, Apple’s new innovations are not attractive enough to beat their competitors. It might be because the technology of smartphone is getting matured.

Through the problems to see if the change in product cycle helps:

“Moving to the three-year cycle also creates greater anticipation.”

I agree with my classmate that “Moving to the three-year cycle also creates greater anticipation.” The three-year cycle is beneficial for Apple’s innovation and problems solving, because a longer time is likely to make a greater improvement. I think this is not only my thought, everyone is likely to think so.

“The key for Apple is to capitalize on this anticipation to further promote its brand.”

Such anticipation helps promote products efficiently so as to boost the sales. Product with longer waiting time usually attracts the public’s attention and arouses their curiosity, so people will respond actively once Apple starts to promote the new product and consumers are more likely to buy a product that takes more years to invent. At the same time, high expectation and confidence make the demand for Apple stock in the secondary market increase so the stock price of the company will soar, which increases the value of the brand.

(To see the 4th quarter data summary:q4fy16datasummary)

To sum up, Apple has some problems which are the huge obstacles on its development way. It has to fix them so as to develop further. Changing to three-year cycle can help Apple to get over the challenges and it is a good strategy to adopt.

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References:

http://www.apple.com/newsroom/2016/10/apple-reports-fourth-quarter-results.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/apple-earning-fourth-quarter-1.3820749