The Power Elite (Dec.1st)

When I think of power I think of those people in powerful positions (Presidents, CEOs, etc.) and the decisions they make. In class last Wednesday we talked about how power is fixed within certain institutions, in the positions that people hold. Power in itself was then described as a kind of potential energy ( like the top of a roller coaster), with the capacity to influence. The influence itself is all about behavior (the kinetic energy), or downward slope of the roller coaster.
I found it interesting that the biggest power institutions today are completely different from 200 years ago. Back then family, school, and church were the big three institutions; whereas now government, military, and economic institutions hold more influence. I think that this really proves how times have changed, along with the values of society as a whole. I am not sure that I agree with this change, as so much of the power is now controlled by one overlying body. As power seems to be constantly shifting, who knows what the big three institutions could be in the future.

Truths behind "goates bucks" exercise revealed

Well I for one was able to gain a little insight about this exercise after last class. I now know that while I was running around trying to complete the task at hand, I had missed our on a few key events that took place. First, although this did not effect me personally, was the fact that the bottom group had assigned areas in the basement. I am sorry for the groups that were somewhat secluded from the entire exercise. I probably would have just left if I were in that position.
One major part of the exercise that I had no knowledge of was the fact that anybody could talk with the group purchasing the slogans. I really thought that only the top group could communicate with them, which would have really made the exercise difficult. I guess from the perspective of the top group that it was smart for them to tell the purchasing group they had to go through them. Also, I totally missed when they came to the basement to tell people that they were willing to buy slogans directly from the lower groups. I think I was in the computer lab with my group by this point.
Luckily I went up to the classroom just in time to sell a  few of our slogans and collect what was left of the goat bucks, just before the end of class. I was mad that a lot of the group before me had sold almost of all their slogans before I go the chance to show mine. If I would have known this I definitely would have just had my team write a bunch down and went up to sell them first. I guess I can't really complain though because at the end we all got at least some extra credit, whereas some people had none.

Book Report Segment 5

              In the final three chapters of The Outliers (http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922) Malcolm Gladwell discusses how we should not shy away from our cultural differences, but instead learn how to use this knowledge to our full advantage. From flying airplanes, to taking math tests, and just school in general, the cultures we come from affect us in many ways. It is when we are able to not only understand, but except these differences that we are able to provide extraordinary opportunities for all. And as Gladwell has pointed out in The Outliers, nobody becomes somebody amazing without having these valuable circumstances.

                Of all the factors thought for leading a plane to crash, cultural differences seemed an unlikely factor to me. For years the Korean Air flights had a terrible reputation for “losses” during international trips. At one point things got so bad, with seventeen times more losses than United Airlines, that outsiders were called in to help find the problem. At the center of the investigation psychologists were called in to listen to transcripts from “lost” international flights. Using a study by Geert Hofstede (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/) researchers figured out that countries such as Greece, Portugal, and Korea have high “uncertainty avoidances”. This means they are most reliant on rules and plans. It turns out these types of countries often times have high Power Distance Index (PDI) levels, with a deep respect for authority. This is attributed to the high loss of Korean flights because many times first officers knew of bad situations, and did not confront pilots for fear of disrespecting their authority. Also, a similar situation persisted when pilots were trying to communicate with Air Traffic Control. In one particular example a plane crashed because the Korean officer was too polite to tell Air Control they should reroute because they were low on fuel. I couldn’t believe that anyone would be disinclined to speak up in a situation like this. Any American I know would have insisted upon a closer landing site even if it was inconvenient to other flights. But it is just eh culture that the Koreans are emerged in. They were however able to learn from this and teach pilots and first officers fluent English, along with an American (low PDI) alternative identity to go with it. Today, Korean Air is one of the safest airlines in the world.

                While the airline example of cultural differences seemed negative at first, they were able to learn from them to make Korean Air safe today. Some parts of Korean and other Asian cultures have lessons that even other countries, including the United States, can learn from. When it comes to mathematics, Asian cultures have always excelled well above Western counterparts. This is due to two cultural advantages. First, countries like China and Korea have logical counting systems, unlike the English number system which is highly irregular. The average Chinese four year old can count to forty, whereas the average American four year old counts only to fifteen. As a result, by age five American kids are already a year behind Asian kids in most basic math skills. Because of the clumsy Western linguistic structure, basic math rules become arbitrary and complicated. In Asia, there is a pattern for doing all math problems, no memorizing, and people actually enjoy math. I was very shocked when I read about how logical the Asian counting system was compared to ours. Instead of saying twenty-one, they say two-tens-one, which makes doing basic addition quicker and easier, and a patter is created.

                Not only is the Asian language attributed to high math scores, but the agriculture is linked as well. In Asian countries rice accounts for the majority of the agriculture. Unlike western cultures whose farming is mechanically oriented, rice farming requires people to become smarter to increase their yields. They also must work hard than any other kind of farmer. But the work is meaningful, and complex, and autonomous in nature. As we learned in class earlier all of these are factors for being satisfied, with a clear relationship between effort and reward. As the Chinese proverb goes, “No one can rise before dawn 360 days a year and fail to make his family rich.” Now I wouldn’t want the lifestyle of a rice farmer for a week, let alone a year, but this is defiantly one part of the Asian culture Americans can definitely learn from.

                As it turns out, some schools in American have tried to provide children with opportunities using the same hard-working culture of Asian countries. The KIPP Academy, the Knowledge is Power Program, is well known for successfully taking poverty stricken children and providing them with an opportunity, in exchange for hard work on their part. A regular school day at KIPP runs from 7:45 am to 5pm, which is 50 to 60% more learning time than a typical public school. The kids also attend school from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays. They even spend three extra weeks in July attending KIPP from 8 am to 2 pm, their “summer hours”. I know that given the choice any average American student would not even set foot in a classroom on a Saturday (kind of similar to how we hope our colleges classes are cancelled), let alone give up their summer vacation. But for a child born in to the poverty lifestyle, who would otherwise have no other opportunity for success, being accepted into KIPP is a dream come true. And with a lot of hard working hours (similar to a lawyer or a doctors daily schedule), success will almost certainly follow. Just form reading the KIPP chapter, I was thinking how similar the schedule and workload is to mine, being in college while having a part-time job. Only these are seventh graders, with a lot of mental endurance and motivation I might add. When I was in seventh grade I was more worried with social events and sports than actual school work. These kids spend four to five houses a night on school work. That’s equal to my college workload now. In the end, these final chapters prove that we can learn from our cultural differences, if at the very least, to provide opportunities that otherwise would have never existed. And any society can grow from these opportunities, in to a better place.

Managers Shape the Future

Last Mondays activity during class was very confusing to me. I don't really know how I feel about the exercise. I was really looking forward to discussing everything in class on Wednesday but since it was cancelled I guess I will comment some on here. I was in the middle group for this exercise. When Dr. Goates gave us our instructions and our office space we all went down together and discussed what we should all be doing. Nobody really seemed to know where to begin with every, we wasted a lot of time not knowing where to go or what to do. When things finally started to come together and we recieved the criteria for the slogans we only had 5 to 10 minutes to get our bottom group people and come up with as many good slogans as possible.

Overall my group had some good slogan ideas. I thought that we did good on time but when we arrived at the classroom many groups had already sold thier slogans. Even though I believe ours were probably better, we got the minimum amount of goats bucks for them because the buyers only had a few bucks left to give away. By the time the class period was over I was left feeling very confused about what had happened in those very quick 75 minutes. I guess I will have to wait until this Monday to find out for sure how my team did and which groups made out the best overall.

Book Report Segment # 4

                In the forth segment of the Outliers (http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922) by Malcolm Gladwell, we learn how the time period we grow up in and our heritage affect our lives and our chances for success. We follow Joe Flom and other Jewish immigrants growing up in the 1930’s in New York City. Gladwell continues with his theory on how successful people today don’t make it simply by accident or fate.

                Joe Flom was a partner in a very successful law firm in Manhattan. He grew up in the Great Depression with Jewish immigrant parents. Flom worked his way through school and served time in the military before attending Harvard Law School. He was very smart, one of the top students in his class, but was not able to find a job within any of the “old-line” Wall Street law firms. He was however able to partner with a few other men to create their own law firm. Today they employ almost 2,000 attorneys and serve top Fortune 500 customers.

                Flom’s success did not come from opportunities like previous Outliers researched by Gladwell. This surprised me as I wondered how someone like Flom was able to succeed. Actually, it was Flom’s disadvantages, come to find out, that led him to being very advantageous. His first disadvantage was that he was Jewish in a time when so called “white-shoe” law firms were very particular about who they employed. If you were not the same background, religion, and social class as them, you joined a small, second-rate law firm in the city. This turned out to be an advantage to many young Jewish lawyers because old-line firms did not do litigation, as it was rare for corporations to sue one another in those days. It was the second-rate Jewish lawyers that gained this experience in corporate takeovers, which would be very beneficial in the years to come, as there was a boom in size and number of them. Flom was able to be in the right career at the right time because of this original disadvantage.

                A second advantage that Flom had was demographic luck. Literally, Flom who was born in 1930 was a part of a time period where there was a demographic trough. Because of the hardship of the Great Depression families simply stopped having children at this point in time. Flom was a part of a small generation in comparison to past and future generations to come as the economy picks up again. This provided Flom with the advantages of an excellent education as far as teacher to student ratios. Also, the job market was open as demands were growing and employees were short. Flom was able to have great success just because of the fact that he was born at a certain time. As stated by Gladwell, “even the most gifted individuals cannot escape the limitations of their generation.”

                The final advantage that happened to effect Flom was on that we recently discusses in class. His parents happened to be Jewish immigrants who worked in the garment industry in New York City. Jews at the time had not been allowed to own land in Europe like other immigrants. Instead they clustered in towns and cities taking on urban trades in professions. When the Jewish immigrants arrived in NYC they were able to use their experience in these trades to create their own work as new entrepreneurs in the city. Unlike their fellow immigrants who worked every day without learning, the Jews gained economic lessons trying to improve upon their businesses day to day. In the garment industry you could see exactly what successful people were doing and how to set up your own job. They had autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward. As we have learned in class, these three qualities are very important for job satisfaction and creating meaningful work. As a child of Jewish immigrants working in the garment industry, Flom was able to make the connection that if you worked had enough, and used your mind and imagination; you could shape the world to your desires.

                I personally believe that this last disadvantage, or advantage if you look at it from a different point of view, was the most beneficial to Flom. In seeing the way that his parents were able to enjoy working for themselves and being their own boss, he was not afraid to take the initial risk of creating his own law firm when he was not accepted by the big shots of his day. He was able to shape his own future just how his father had with his garment industry. Only this time, because of the added factor of time and the demographic trough, Flom was able to become a very successful lawyer of his time period.

Hygiene over Motivators

Based upon the Magic Cable case discussion in class today, I decided to expand on my previous post for hygiene factors being a bigger prediction of job satisfaction than motivators. I think that an average worker such as Gary, the main character in our case study will be more influenced to leave or remain within a company based on hygiene factors, rather than motivators. Gary ultimately leaves his old company to take a job at Magic Cable because of hygiene factors. He was not getting along well with his supervisor at his previous company. Also, the work environment was dusty, noisy, and fast paced, making it harder to deal with working day to day. Ironically enough Gary decides to take a new job at the Magic Cable company, where he will ultimately quit due to a new set of hygiene factors, causing him dissatisfaction at work.

Even though this is only one example, I feel that this kind of thing happens many times throughout all different companies. One company may be perfect for a specific individual, but provide negative hygiene factors for another. I believe that more people are influenced to change companies or careers based on simple hygiene factors than on motivators. I guess when it comes down to it people would rather not be dissatisfied than be satisfied at a job. I think that many people would rather have good working conditions or pay or company policies, than have the opportunity for recognition or added responsibility.

Hygiene Factors

When if comes to the motivator- hygeiine theory of job satisfaction there are two different theories to why people are/are not satisfied with their companies. I feel that hygiene factors are a bigger influence and predictor of job satisfaction today than the motivators are. Because the economy today is not the greatest, I feel that more people will be satisfied with a job that isn't terrible, where they can at least get by on a day to day basis. If anything I feel that higher level job positions will care more about the motivators. These are the type of people who want more stimulating work, responsibility, and achievement. The rest of the population wants their paychecks or just a job to keep them on their feet, and if happen to have a supervisor that they get along with and an okay salary, well then thats fantastic!