Welcome to my blog and my first blog ever!
Reading chapter 1 in Robbin's book Organizational Behavior was all new material for me. I have never been a manager and have never really known what managers do. I have only had three real jobs and the first two both of the managers were corrupt and stole money from the company. The most recent job I worked in Washington and I did not have a real manager. I have never known what a great manager does until I read this chapter.
While reading the chapter I read that effective managers spend the most of their time communicating with other employees and customers. This really made me think about how my managers have been awful managers and how when i walk into a store i can tell if there is a good manager in the store or not. My managers have never communicated with me. If all managers communicate with the employees and customers (if possible), a lot and in an effective manager then business will get better.
Another thing that I read for unit one was the book Good to Great. This book really made me think about do companies become great? This is addressed in the book and it says that they do become great. I don't know if I see this as an accurate statement yet. I was thinking about this and can not think of a company that I have watched go good to great! All the companies I know of have always been great. Of course a company cant start off great... or can it? It all starts with the managers I think and so if the managers are great to start with then the company does start great! I will continue to read this book and see if it can change my perspective on this.
I'm a communications major myself and so as I may be slightly bias in my opinions, but I have to agree with our book that communication is one of the most important, if not the most important processes that organizations undergo on a daily basis. Without effective communication, information can often be ambiguous and left up for interpretation for any employee; which can mean that what is supposed to get done will most likely not get done the way that it's supposed to.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have never really had that much experience with managers so the reading material was fresh information to me. I work on my families farm that is managed by my dad and his two brothers. Even though they are managers it is very different for me because everything is family run. Jobs get smeared together from one person to the next and there isn't much structure.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I was an intern at the Ronald McDonald House last summer and just from interning I had my eyes opened at how organizations work. Everyone had their own job but at the same time everyone would work together when necessary to get things done. The excellent communication skills that the Executive Director had with all of the people made the Ronald McDonald House a very welcoming place to be.
I never realized that just interning somewhere would open my eyes to not only different jobs but also the different ways organizations are operated.
Lin, I totally agree that a manager needs to have a good understanding of how to communicate with his/her employees to be effective at their job. I have had some jobs with horrible communication and others with great communication. It was much easier to work when my manager communicated as I was able to know what I was doing and what I could do better. I think that having lots of great managers leads to better employees which may lead to a company becoming great too.
ReplyDelete