MSLD 511 Personal Blog

Consider how you generally relate as a team-member . Whetton and Cameron quoted Andrew Carinegie in their text stating, “Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results” (2016, p. 403). I think this can readily be seen in numerous workplaces. Often I view each team member of mine individual, where they come from, their personal life, then see us working collectively. It truly is amazing to see individuals come from all places to form a team to strive towards an overall goal. Within my workplace, I relate as a team member who truly wants to assist wherever there is a need. Within an interview process, this may come across as great! However, in the day-to-day tasks, this can often be negative as some employees need to complete tasks on their own to learn and have the empowerment of completing a task without help. It is quite easy for me to get involved. Since I know this, I try to let new hires have their own space and simply approach me if they feel the nee...

Empowerment in the work field is a tricky word as it is a balancing act for a superior. Empowerment has been defined and redefined by modern cultural and media. Whetton and Cameron state that empowerment means providing freedom to individuals to succeed in, “what they want to do, rather than getting them to do what you want them to do” (2016, p. 366). Forrester noted in his research, “despite the attraction of the concept of high-involvement management, companies have found it difficult to put empowerment into practice” (2002, p. 68). Within my current position, I have not felt empowerment in the full totality that it encapsulates, however, within the position itself, due to some of the autonomy, I have felt empowered and trusted to some degree. My current position at ERAU is very independent, where you are trusted to have your work done well in a timely manner, travel on your own, book everything for travel and present/host events with 200+ attendees. You are not handheld throug...

Honestly, I have not been involved in conflict resolution. Of course, within all corporations, there is always conflict at hand. Thankfully in my past work experiences I was the one witnessing the conflict and not directly involved. For my current position, avoidance is the typical approach with conflict. Whetton and Cameron’s research reveal that managers typically utilize conflict avoidance versus other approaches to conflict resolution (2017, p. 307). During my first position with Mariott, I witnessed much conflict which resulted in a high turnover rate. One specific instance was with an employee who was the main maintenance technician. He was a hard worker, put in over-time, stuck to all the rules and regulations, put his best foot forward and wanted to excel in his position. One evening (working the evening shift) he had asked me if I had received my 90 day raise. I informed him that I had only received a ten cent raise, and he then was extremely discouraged, as well as upse...

There are numerous things within my position that motivates me to work hard and with a purpose. The first would be my family and working for them. I know the current position I carry is very important to me, my husband’s life, and educational goals. Working at Embry-Riddle was a goal of mine before I graduated with my undergraduate in 2016. I reached that goal 2.5 years later, but it was something I was able to achieve, to become a part of the ERAU family and what it consists of. Therefore, with that in mind, family is my first goal. I work hard to help support a life with my husband, to save for our future children, to provide support and care of our family members to bless them and to give to others within our community that are in need of groceries, or a meal, etc. I go to work every day with this in mind and grateful for my position at Riddle. Much of my personal beliefs, ethics and morals also play a role in going to work and working hard for others and not my own personal goals...

Successful work environments have been linked to utilizing open and trustworthy communication between managers and followers. Our lecture this week emphasized how supportive communication can preserve or enhance relationships. This unfortunately did not take place at Cerner, resulting in a poor work culture in which work performance was no longer a priority as seen from the provided email excerpt. Within the eight attributes of supportive communication, some of the aspects are areas that I have found myself not utilizing and others that I have been specifically working on the last 2-3 months within my office. The first two attributes, congruence and descriptive communication, are something that I must actively work on everyday at my workplace. Matching how I act with my non-verbals can be very difficult, as like the lecture stated, we often communicate with others that we have more common interests with. Further, I can struggle to communicate descriptively about an event without ...

Common restraints that I have placed on myself within my workplace are self-doubt and apathy. Examples of self-doubt would be questioning myself on a specific work procedure or information I share with a potential student or holding back an idea I have during a team meeting. Throughout my last year and a half in the admission department, I am aware that I am sharing the correct answers to common questions and how to complete my work tasks throughout the day. My two managers have informed me that they believe I have excelled greatly and am one of their strongest counselors, however I continue to doubt and question throughout the entire day. The second constraint, apathy; often when work is slow, or I feel as though I am not flourishing within my office, I am unmotivated to complete the simplest office tasks. These are two common restraints that I know I need to destroy in order to engage in problem solving with my team and individually. The constraint of apathy has prevented me in...

At first, the thought of spending ten minutes a day doing nothing made me a little stressed and anxious, as I feel as though my “to do” list is never ending. My initial thought was, “why not use those ten minutes to work on my Fall travel or start on homework?” However, throughout the last 4-5 months, I have learned and am learning the art of taking time to reflect and take time out of school and work to do things that I love. Taking ten minutes a day doing nothing helped me to learn that ten minutes can fly by and I learned that some of my stress is self-induced.   After listening to Puddicombe’s talk, he made multiple statements that stood out to me about stress and resting our minds. He states, “we are no longer present in the work in which we live and we miss out on things most important to us” (2012). With the influx of work and school lately this is true for my life. When I am trying to enjoy time with family, I am thinking about all the work that needs to be done bef...