Decision Making

The class was given an objective: Prof. K would do anything reasonable to favor the class for the first exam as well as formulate the second exam as we wished IF AND ONLY IF we as a class could come to a unanimous decision for both scenarios. From the start, I feel that the class went about the decision making process pretty well. One classmate got up and quickly took charge as the team leader and began to write people's ideas on the board. Given that our class is quite large, I feel we did a fairly good job communicating and when things began to get a little out of hand, the class leader quickly intervened and restored the order. After we went around the room and wrote down people's proposals for the first task, (what to do with the 1st exam) we began to vote and compromise where needed until we reached a unanimous decision. We repeated the same steps for the second task (how to format the 2nd exam), however we were not as successful. The class was not able to reach a unanimous decision based on the proposed ideas from students, but we quickly made a decision on how to handle it. We did not want to lose out on our decision from the first task, so we unanimously decided to allow Prof. K to format the 2nd exam. Keeping what we gained from the first task was more important than deciding on how to format the 2nd exam. I think this was a crucial decision made by the class.

I personally chose the Accommodation approach to handle conflict because I wanted to help in making a decision that would benefit the majority of the class. Since the class test grades were not so good, I knew that the majority of the students would base their decisions on what would either give them extra credit or nullify the exam grade completely. Therefore, I tended to vote for such proposals that would favor the majority. Knowing how the class reacted and how we communicated to one another, I could have also chosen the Collaborating approach to seek results. Bargaining and negotiation within a group is very important and is usually how decisions are made. It is unlikely that all members of a group will agree on the same exact things, therefore some things must be given up to gain others.

In conclusion, I feel that we performed well as a large group with a limited amount of time. We were able to agree on one of the tasks and although we did not succeed on the second task, we were quick to agree that the advantages of the first tasks were far too great to lose out on--hence we decided to give up our say on the 2nd task. The main objective for us was to see what would benefit us for the first 2 exams, but little did we know that we were learning how to make decisions in such a large group. I guess that's why Prof. K gets paid the big bucks.

The Planning Process

I was not in class on the day the egg planning activity was done, however, I do practice and put into use the planning process when I am at work. As i mentioned in a previous entry, I am a Maitre'd at a catering hall and my job is basically to supervise and run the event that I am assigned to on that day. Before the event even begins, I am in charge of indicating to my staff members how to set up the room for that particular event (room set up varies depending on the type of party). Once the party has begun, I am responsible for planning a schedule for when all the courses will be given out as well as making sure the staff is following the schedule effectively. Although I am the supervisor of the party, I like to think of my staff and I as a team because I would not be able to run the event without them. Therefore, as the team leader, I must effectively use the planning process to manage my agenda and times properly for the party I am running.
When I arrive at work and am assigned to an event, I have to determine my goals and objectives: how does the room need to be set up?; by what time does it have to be done by? given the hours of the party, what time should we serve the courses? which waiters should be assigned which sections? These are several tasks to attend to with a limited amount of time, which means that I need the assistance of my staff in attending to what they have to do in order for me to focus on what I must do. During the set-up of the dining room, I have my strongest staff members do the tasks that are most challenging or most time consuming and I have the less experienced members take care of easier tasks. Once i assign tasks to all the staff members, my job is to come up with a possible schedule for the courses and communicate with the kitchen staff to make sure they can be ready with the food by the time I need it. This time management task is one of the most difficult because usually things happen throughout the party that cause me to fall behind with my schedule. (i.e the bride and groom take too long to be ready for an entrance, speeches take longer than expected, etc). Therefore, when I come up with my possible schedule, I always make another schedule on the side with adjusted times in case I fall behind during the party. This strategy of the planning process has proven to be successful for me in many cases because the alternative schedule has already anticipated falling behind with time.
Being that we just learned about the steps of the planning process, I have actually been following them at work in the past without even knowing it. Due to experience, I feel that my planning process at work is very efficient and my team and I usually have no problem executing the plans for the events. If it were not for my planning ahead of time and communicating to the kitchen and my team members of how we will handle the tasks throughout the party, then everything would most definitely be a disaster. Planning is the most important part of the management process because it serves as a blueprint for achieving the tasks at hand.

Culture Shock

During a Sociology course that I took two semesters ago, we were assigned to visit and experience another culture and then write a paper reflecting what we learned and how it differed from our own. I chose to study the Greek culture because one of my close friends is Greek and he agreed to accompany me to Astoria(which is where the majority of the Greek neighborhoods are located in Queens) and teach me a little about the culture. Aside from that visit, the actual experience that I witnessed about Greek culture that shocked me as well as interested me the most, occured at work. I am a Maitre'd at a catering hall, and I have worked several Greek parties including weddings, christenings, birthdays, etc. In all those parties, I witnessed the Greek people do a cultural dance where they all hold hands and dance in a circle while other friends or members of the family throw money at them. This cultural tradition resulted to be very different, but very interesting as well to me because I am not used to any such traidtion in my culture. If I remember correctly, my friend told me that the throwing of the money signifies good luck and wealth for the honored guests. Based on my experiences with these parties at work, the actual money that is thrown, is later picked up and given to the DJ or band as a form of gratuity (I am not 100% sure if this is true in all cases, but it has been in my experiences). The dances usually last a pretty long time and there is often one person in the center of the circle who does a sort of solo dance as the others cheer. It is very interesting and fun to watch this dance and to see how the people really get into it and enjoy it. Cultures vary in so many different ways and it is important to acknowledge and understand the different cultures of the world. In our management course especially, we incorporate different people and cultures in order to learn how to manage people who's ideas and norms differ from our own, which in the "real world" will prove to be very important.