An Ode to Management

Through the dark and dreary days,
When situations and complications seem unjust,
Companies may not know the right ways.
Is it time for us to adjust?

How can he be so cruel?
Why is life so unfair?
Do they have absolute rule?
I do not think they care.

I want to be a team player,
But I do not want to give up my good conscience.
Someone please answer my prayer
Because I am sick of all the nonsense.

Alas, I stop and think of all the lessons I have learned,
Prof Kurpis' management class is the place that I yearn.

Comm

I think that the blog assignments is a great tool to communicate our thoughts not just to our classmates, but as a reflection of the material lectured in class. It helped us to not just read or sit through lecture and text, but with a blog and creative assignments, we can assess theories and concepts to our own lives. I have always thought that it is always easier to learn a subject if we can apply it to our own experiences. I learned more about myself through these assignments by putting myself in a management perspective and seeing what type of manager I might be in different events. Prof K's blog definitely provided interesting points of view of handling situations in organizations (particuarly the bear and monkey stories). These blogs were more of an intuitive nature.

I was able to vent about problems I had and receive supportive feedback from classmates. It was nice to see what everyone had to say on a more personal level, not just hearing their short responses from class.

Blogs were a helpful and creative channel to approaching management. I think that it represented not just 20% of our grade fairly, but I like that we were able to contribute to our grade from a constructive yet individualistic and creative way. I hope to continue to post entries that are relevant to management from experiences in life, especially from work since I plan to join the work force in a few weeks.

Golden Arches

I stopped by McDonalds on a Monday afternoon. The store was busy, packed with high school students who just got out of the school for the day. As I stand on the long line, I anticipate the annoyed looking cashier to balk at my bizarre order of fries, no salt and a cheeseburger of exactly four pickles. After all, I had worked at Burger King while in high school and requests such as these always annoyed me and my co-workers. To get an order of fries without salt, a whole new batch of fries has to be made and separated from the already salted batch. This would require quite some time, especially when there is a rush of people. The cooking time on these new fries, from my prior working experience, was about two and a half minutes. Knowing these facts, I was prepared for a long and uncomfortable wait at the counter while the employees worked on my order.
However, I was very surprised at how nonchalant the cashier responded to my order. I spoke to her very nicely; almost apologetically. In an indifferent manner, she assured me that it was quite alright. As soon as my order was placed, she dropped a new batch of fries into the fryer for me. As she got my soda, she stuck her head into the kitchen and confirmed my order with the cook about the pickles. He nodded in understanding and proceeded to make my burger. When the fries were done, she prepared my order first and did not salt them. This whole process took a very short 3 minutes. I think it helped that there was good communication between the employees and there was plenty of staff present to do each task. I saw the manager standing by the kitchen but he was not consulted.

If I was asked to be a consultant at McDonalds, I do not think that I would change must of their procedures. There was plenty of staff on hand, so I there were no back log of orders that would make my wait long. The system that they were using for communication between the front and back of the restaurant worked well. The cashier noted on my receipt that there should be 4 pickles and the manufacturing responded well to the clear directions. Given the circumstances, I do not think that the staff could have been much more efficient than they were. My order did not seem to disrupt their flow of actions. From a customer service standpoint, I did not receive any attitudes. McDonalds seemed well equipped to handle special orders. One possible suggestion that may make their smooth operation even smoother may be using microphones to communicate between employees. Some large retail stores and restaurants such as Applebee’s have walkie talkies or head sets that are used to communicate between staff.

I think that the employees handled the situation very well. They seemed like they were accustomed to whacky orders like mine.