Who’s in Charge?
Starting a new job can be stressful. The fear of the unknown, how the people will react to you or if you will fit in are inevitable thoughts that a person may feel when coming to an organization. The fear of getting on the bad side of your boss or creating hard feelings with tenured employees are other fears that can sometimes accompany the fear of the unknown. Not to mention, going into a job where your skills may not mesh with the job at one’s new employer. In this paper, Jim Davis, a young man, starts his new career with a bank, where he is faced with some challenges. This paper will cover from a power perspective the characteristics of Jim’s situation, mistakes Jim made in his assumptions about power and influence,
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The control that Eric Johnson showed truly made it hard for Jim to be effective in this instant and in other ways throughout this case study.
Eric Johnson created situations, although he did have Jim go through five weeks of informal training to get familiar with the bank and its operations, however, bank policies should have been covered in more detail, especially anything to do with his position, and this would have given Jim the opportunity to do his job more efficiently. Johnson also needed to give better support to Jim, when Jim asked for help he volunteered the assistance of other employees whom he did not value per the comments about that is what they are there for without ever confirming with those employees’ supervisor, which put Jim in a predicament with the supervisor of that department. Although Jim informed Johnson of what the supervisor had stated and Johnson told Jim not to worry that he would handle it, no help arrived that day. However, Jim did have two clerks help the next morning and after a week, he received a part-time secretary (Mainolfi & Cohen, 2000).
Starting a new job is understandably difficult, but Jim not wanting to upset people and taking on work that was not part of his job created situations for himself. Although the training of the branch managers was a great idea, that was not his department, but Johnson again
Many of the problems that Carl has found concerning the new employee orientation could have been avoided. Carl is a recently hired employee himself. He should have kept up with the progress of the new employee orientation and checked on the files for the applicants. ABC, Inc. should also have made sure that their new employee was capable of doing his job efficiently. If Carl had stayed on top of his project, the problems that he faced would not have occurred.
Ultimately, Knapp had the opportunity to commit this heinous act because of his unreasonable financial position and power in the organization. Robert’s duties included authorizing and distributing checks, which led to the opportunity to commit the crime. The clear lack of separation of duties was tremendous and indefensible by
Gerald should have received some type of on-the-job training that goes over ever piece of detail that needs to be attended to. John left everything up to Gerald then eventually got upset when business was not being taken care of. The reason for on-the-job training, is because John can use the opportunity of OJT to really teach Gerald how he wants the store ran, and what transactions he want done on a daily basis.
Several observations and stories touch on how to use the large corporate environment and its resources to maintain a satisfying, successful career. In chapter 15, MacKenzie talks about how to address those who make their living within the hairball. He reminds us that we should not view those within the hairball as our enemies. He suggests that any time a bureaucrat stands between
In a collection of articles unlike the other books we have read, The Harvard Business Review along with the School of Business at the university did a five year research on the connection and balance between work and life outside of work. But it also looks at the higher end of the social ladder. They look at executives of company’s worldwide. Like I said, this edition of the HBR is a series of articles that go from a deep look into the “mommy-track” to different future looks on prospective jobs, and details the path of employees of all levels on how to understand the tricky and
Building off of the problem arising from Patty and Jim’s relationship there is a problem with political skill that arises as well.
Carter Racing and NASA examples discussed in the class taught us the value of the voice of dissension. While Stevens acts like the character of Tom from Carter Racing, Jack Bryant from Personnel Audit team would have been the voice of Paul. Carter should have included him on the team and listened to his experiences while talking to the employees and their managers. After all, his “on-the-ground” experience and intuition gained through the audit process was more likely to reveal the real situation than PAS or the brief audit reports. Just as NASA, after the Challenger Disaster instituted a rule that a launch could be vetoed by anyone in the team, including Jack in the conversation would have served as an antidote to overconfidence bias that would otherwise creep in.
Audience: We believe the book is an excellent read for anyone in the workplace, people who yearn to be skilled bosses or want to work for one.
Jim is an experienced trader whose professionalism brings stability to our department. He supports the organization’s strategic plan, and his business practices are consistent with our mission. Jim follows the established guidelines, and he works with the Trading Controls group to get things done right. He is a good team player who has a concern for delivering measurable results. Going forward Jim needs to take a more active role in advising others on new and existing responsibilities and he will need to work on his confidence and understanding of each
Once David had made the decision to form a team, he started by hiring Brian Doyle. Brian was a seasoned consultant and would be able to offer knowledge in high-technology. Although, David had been working on this concept for some time, he failed to ensure all the stakeholders had buy-in. He did talk to a few people within the company, but never had a formal meeting with Whitney to outline his goals for the team. Also, David expected Whitney and Brian to work on any crossover of stock analysis among each other without his assistance. However, due to the past one-on-one working relationship between David and Whitney she was ill prepared for how to deal with Brian or his role within JFP. David compounded this by not providing leadership, guidance or accountability when he
Gothic Literature has dark, gloomy settings and mysterious, often supernatural,violent events. Reading scary stories can make some people deathly afraid and can creep others out.A gothic story can also contain terrifying creatures such as zombies and vampires that are not real. “The Tell Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1843 is a prime example of gothic literature due to the strange events that occurred the mentally ill psychopath that killed an old man because he supposedly had a “vulture eye”.
Ray Bradbury said ‘’ we need to be really bothered once in a while, I think he means that the people individually have become adopted with television. They are world is television. Nothing matter they are watch petty arguing of the people on the TV screen. Also they are not allowed to read book. Children are growing up without parents because they do not care about family. People don’t care about what happen around world. They only believe what the government said. I think Ray Bradbury trying to say to people sometime we need to speak up, don’t stay blind, Figure out that is true or false. See the world.
As far back as history can be told mankind has struggled between balancing culture, power and politics. Many wars have been fought and many people have placed their lives on the line in order to stand up for what they believe in. The combinations of culture, power and politics have spilled over into the workplace. In today’s business environment individuals have much more to worry about than just completing their assigned tasks. Organizational culture, power and office politics influence day to day operations as well as govern the atmosphere within the organization. The amount of impact that power and politics have in the workplace, directly reflect the organization’s culture formally as well as informally.
In an organization where there is a culture that has been developed through years, a culture of uncommitted individuals and selfish authorities, the harmony that is needed in accomplishing the organizational goals between the management and the rank-and-file employees cannot be attained. At this point, any person who wants to implement changes in the system for the better of the company can experience great stress and difficulty due to the resistance and developed attitudes of the members of the organization.
Taking on a management position puts you in a competitive arena, there are expectations to prove yourself, that you can outshine your colleagues; Consequently, it’s this external factor that no matter how good you think you are, there will always be someone else to try and steal your thunder. When you enter what seems to be utter chaos that requires an immediate solution, the only thing to do is put your genius hat on and make it personal. Even amid my finest hour, I became a victim of the economic woes. My response to being downsized has been a career change, by pursuing my degree, obtaining new experiences, and honing-in on old ones, I’m destined to prove myself yet, again.