Sunday, March 29, 2009

Communication barriers in the work setting

After experiencing a co-op in Boston Massachusetts for eight months, there was time for many problems to materialize between upper and lower management. As a co-op, I had the opportunity to view these issues in an unbiased way. The main example that comes to mind when dealing with communication problems occurred between the district business manager and one of the lower financial managers.

Every month, the financial managers are responsible for creating cost reports for each of their individual jobs. Once these cost reports are complete, the business district manager presents the new budgets in the District Operation Review. The new financial manager was unaware of the company policies for creating these cost reports on time and was heavily chastised by the district manager in front of his co-workers. The new employee was never told about the deadline, so it was only assumed that he knew the proper date.

This reflects a poor effort from the district manager as well as the other surrounding employees, who should have been guiding this employee. Not having the data to present at the big meeting made the district manager look bad, but he should have been more frustrated with himself than the employee. After serious thought, the district manager realized he was wrong a gave a public apology to the employee. The District manger made it clear that all new hires in the future will be clarified on these details from the get go.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Presentation/Portfolio

The presentation William Weatherly gave on guitar tops was effective and informative. He established good will towards the audience by referencing other presentations in his power point. William discussed the structure of the guitar and the braces that support the top. Prior to the presentation, I was unaware of the significance of the different types of wood used for the guitar. I did not realize that the unique sounds that guitars have were attributed to these different wood types. The power point re-instated the main ideas that Will discussed and were not too cluttered with unnecessary and confusing information.

The on-line portfolios I have done in the past have been through Clemson University with the use of blackboard. The e-portfolio that is required for all Clemson students has been easy to use and maintain. The portfolio wizard makes the portfolio easy to set up and is a fairly quick process. I have some experience with publisher’s online portfolio and am willing and open to learning how to work with any other programs that may be better. So far, I have not had any bad experiences with online portfolios and hopefully there will be no issues in the future. In order to be prepared for the portfolio due on March 23rd , a demonstration or example of an ideal portfolio would be best. This would be a good reference when trying to complete the portfolio due in class by March 23rd.