Communicating Via Blog

1. I think using Blog was an effective instrument as a way to communicate our thoughts and ideas with people especially classmates of the course. I absolutely benefited from meeting others online; I learned a lot about how other students perceived a subject, and what their reactions were toward our class activities. Blog facilitated by enabling us to interact with all the students and help us to get to know more classmates (we might not be able to discuss or interact in class of this size). It offered us convenience to interact with each other: We could respond to any body’s posting in our available time.

2. Blog did effectively get me to think about and share my perceptions about what we did in class. What it did is solidified my knowledge about the subject matter, and it will enable me to retain the knowledge for a long time.

3. Frankly, I think professor’s blog postings are interesting. However, I felt it is a lot of work for students to read all the professor’s blog entries and to respond them.

4. I think the blog assignment diversified our anxieties by having our 20% of our grades. However, it was good in a sense that we had to think about the subject matter and respond to others blog entries constructively.

5. I am not sure If I will continue or not. It is most likely that I will post if I find something very interesting or I want to share my ideas with others.

Even though, I felt at times there were a lot of work to do about the blog (read a lot of blog entries to respond them), I think the blog should remain a component of this course because it will make student to stretch their abilities and get real life experience. Also, it adds another dimension in our studies.

Dimentions of Behavior (DISC)

I think, for the most part, the test gauged my management orientation right, but there is a very little discrepancy between the test results and my actual management orientation. The discrepancy exists because the options that were allocated to choose from were to the extreme of the spectrum: most and list. Usually, I am not that kind of person who stance on the extreme. Existence in moderation is my philosophy; that is doing everything in moderation is optimum except in certain extreme cases.
The test results indicated that I am a conscientious person (+5) with high in steadiness (+7); my influence is very low (-9) as well as my dominance (-5). I absolutely agree that I am a conscientious person with high steadiness in daily life. However, when I play sports I am very dominating and influential (I was captain for many times of our local cricket team). When I play cricket (an outdoor sports similar to baseball), I am very dominating as a batsman; only the bowlers (pitcher) could feel how harsh I could be (I execute any opportunity the bowlers offer). I also influence other by playing well which motivate them to do well.
Actually, I am happy for what I am. So, I don’t wish that I was another type. I think people can change if they eagerly desire to do so, but I also believe there are certain things that are not attainable by certain people. For instance, I might be able to increase my “influence” management orientation from negative nine to positive and dominance negative to positive, but I will always be a high conscientious person with high steadiness. It is somewhat important in the sense that the top authority would have a better understanding of the person (if they get the right answer), which could allow them to efficiently utilize that person’s abilities. This kind of test can be helpful in personal interactions; it would help to asses others’ personalities that would direct me to act to accommodate with their personalities.

Extra Credit Assignment

I waited on the line about one minute to place my special order. When I was called, I approached the cashier and asked for one hamburger with four pickles and a small French Fries with no salt. The Cashier looked at me in disbelief as if there is something wrong with me.
She called for the small hamburger with four pickles in Spanish (I understand little Spanish), and she went to fry her self a new batch of French Fries to fulfill my order. The burger was ready in about two minutes. The French Fries took about seven minutes since that she fired a fresh batch. She did everything herself in completing the French Fries order because somebody else might mixed up or put salt in it.
I paid for the items about after three minutes I placed the order. She did not give me receipt at all then. When she was handing me the tray (about ten minutes after I placed the order), I asked her for the receipt. She printed a receipt which did not say anything about pickles in the hamburger and salt in the French Fries. I think language barrier played a role in misunderstanding of how I wanted the receipt to look (the cashier spoke very little English). So I requested her to place four pickles under the hamburger and French Fries to say with no salt. Reluctantly, she printed another receipt which only mentioned 1 hamburger and 1 small French Fries w/o salt. She did not know how to place pickle on the receipt. As a result I asked her if the manager was there. The manager was in the counter taking others orders. The cashier told the manager about the whole situation.
The manager was a chubby Hispanic young man. He was kind of tensed and bad tempered. He goes that my request can’t be done (in harsh tone). I said, I know you gays can do this. So another staff (acted like manager) involved in the process. He is a calm and experienced middle age Hispanic man. He approached me and asked if I had asked the cashier for the receipt to show the four pickles and French Fries with no salt. I said, yes. He told something to the cashier in Spanish. After that he went on to prepare another receipt. He put one extra pickle under the hamburger and French Fries with no salt. Then I told him that I requested for four pickles, not one. He said that our system does not allow putting pickles four times. So, I nicely requested him to write down on the receipt that they put four pickles. He reluctantly wrote on the receipt that they put total three pickles, which was not what I asked for. However, I decided not to request again to write down four pickles. The whole process took about twelve minutes.
I would give 6 out of 10 the staff’s manufacturing, communications, coordination, and customer service processes because she didn’t even know how to place extra pickles in the computers. If I were brought in as a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve their efficiency, I would recommend the managers to train the entire cashiers how to place special orders, to listen carefully what the customers’ requests, and to be on the customers’ side when a mistake occur by a staff member.