MSLD 511 Personal Blog

The D-I-K-A model within my current organization could be implemented in a much cleaner and efficient fashion. For example, my management does not directly utilize D-I-K-A, however the ‘followers’ (employees) do utilize it in order to complete our work. Each new season, employees must submit their proposed travel plans to our superiors. To do so, we must gather data from historical travel, generate reports based off numbers for the current academic class and review reports for potential growth within certain areas of our assigned territories.   We then review this data, and model in into justification sheets which reflect our information of the data that is relevant to our upcoming and desired travel. Then, this information is used as either positive or negative knowledge of how well or poor our territory is growing or minimizing. We submit this knowledge to our superiors to justify why we want to do specific events and recruitment in certain areas. If our travel plans are approv...

Jeff Hancock stated in his Ted Talk, “Almost every aspect of human communication's been changed, and of course that's had an impact on deception” (2011). Since every form of communication has altered in a fashion that has transformed our society, lying is much easier to do than it used to be. Sherry Turkle stated in her video, “I've interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people, young and old, about their plugged in lives. And what I've found is that our little devices, those little devices in our pockets, are so psychologically powerful that they don't only change what we do, they change who we are. Some of the things we do now with our devices are things that, only a few years ago, we would have found odd or disturbing, but they've quickly come to seem familiar, just how we do things” (2012). This has greatly transformed how, when, where and why we communicate. Within this newer form of commutation that is augmented by technology, lying has become more prevalen...

To describe my organizations culture, I want to share a story that involved all faculty and staff of the Embry-Riddle, Prescott campus. The Embry-Riddle Prescott campus has gone through some rough times, once almost to the point of closing not too long ago. Thankfully, this campus received a Chancellor that turned everything around for the students, families, faculty and staff. He was employed with this campus for a decade and was extremely involved for all ten years of his service. He and his wife attended every sporting event, were intentional about getting to know their student body and would often roam around campus on the weekends simply to get to know more students. Dr. Ayers would also remember all students by first and last name whom he met! It was once a story that I heard and believed to be false, but after working for the University for just over a year, I saw that to be true. “Stories represent one mechanism through which organizational culture and organizational-cult...

After watching, then reading the transcript for Elizabeth Lesser’s talk titled Take “The Other” to Lunch, there is a handful of colleagues that automatically come to mind. Also, there is automatically a list of people from my workplace that I “click” with more and know quite-well that I do not need to take to lunch to get to know. The colleague I would take to lunch is a newer employee that I know has different views on current issues than I do. I do not think this is a negative thing, as I believe we can learn a great deal from individuals who see issues through different lenses than ourselves. This colleague has a very different personality than me, and one that I struggle to get to know. In an effort to communicate in an open and honest way, I would set ground rules much as Lesser did. I would set goals of the following: no interrupting, listen intently, do not assume, be authentic, be conversational. One of the advantages of having open and honest dialogue within the workpl...

Reflecting on the language within my office and how it primarily is specific to my workplace was difficult for me to identify at first. I realized this was because I have become used to the verbiage. A few of the words that are circulated often in my workplace but carry a different meaning to the outside world are : -Matriculated -Conditional -Provisional These can easily be portrayed simply as words with either much meaning or very little meaning . However, in the admission field, these words carry heavy meaning and importance when used in the office. For example, before working in admissions, if someone said the word matriculated I would not think of a student who has been admitted normally, who has paid their tuition deposit and has been processed in our system. If I thought of the word provisional, my mind wouldn't have jumped to a student who did not meet the academic requirements, but is trying to gain admission over time . As John Koenig states in his talk, “ .....

My original definition of leadership that I developed nine weeks ago was, “ Leadership is a trait gained through application in which the subject influences those around them in various means towards a common goal.” I would not make a change to my original definition of leadership. I still view leadership as a word that is extremely difficult to define. Scholars are still studying leadership and honing traits to become the best leader. This nine-week course expanded my original tunnel vision view of leadership and revealed I was blind to the fact that there are numerous theories and hypothesis’ regarding leadership. However, my overarching belief that leadership is a skill that anyone can hone still holds. Learning about differing views of leadership and how an individual can approach followers was very eye-opening to my own leadership habits. It broadened my spectrum of how to lead, what can be done and different ways in which leaders can approach followers. Studying leadership ...

I have had three “real-world” professional experiences since I graduated from my undergraduate studies in 2016. All three have been extremely instrumental in shaping who I am professionally, how I carry myself and how I adorn leadership qualities when need be. Each position I have held has grown me in ways that were originally outside my comfort zone, but now are no longer. My daily thought as I drive to work has always been: be who I am to my core, be kind, work hard and treat each individual I encounter with worth and dignity. This is where my personal and work ethic stem from. Being self-aware of my work-habits, conversations and work-ethic has also aided in developing who I am professionally. One key example of how I learned to be self-aware and adopt positive qualities instead of negative was in my first sales position. My two managers (I shared an office with one of them) were very sporadic in emotions, would yell and scream often and had inappropriate relationships with co...