Alternative reading report November 24, 1998 Chapters 1-3

Pearce, Sue and Cameron, Sheila. Against the Grain: Developing Your Own Management Ideas. Oxford: Butterworth-Heineman, 1997. P 1-41

Chapter 1 of this text, " Do Managers Need Common Sense? " highlighted the challenges of leaders in todays organizations. Relying on past experiences alone cannot illuminate new solutions because completely new scenarios arise every day requiring different experiences, different beliefs and values and different models of work. Solutions based on the past may no longer be appropriate. Leaders must question "common sense" based on past experiences. Leaders must encourage creativity and diversity.

Chapter 2, "The Complexities of Management Today" reviewed research of 200 managers regarding the complexities of their jobs during these times of unprecedented changes. Although planning and forecasting has long been seen as a managerial responsibility, this function is very difficult today because of unplanned rapid changes in the environment inside and outside of the organization.

During Fall Quarter at Earle Brown examples of unplanned rapid changes include: 7 financial issuesnation-wide downturn in conference revenues 7 OT issueswith Kathy Fennelly questioning the cost of extra hours personnel have been working 7 changes in my responsibilities related to the cancellation of Annual Conference and County Extension Day responsibilities.

Because of rapid changes in todays business climate, modern managers need to develop the new skills in their leadership roles today emphasizing technical skills, interpersonal skills and conceptual skills.

Chapter 3 focused on the development of "Your Own Management Philosophy".

This chapter administered a "management philosophy quiz" to determine my biases regarding organizations and behaviors. My responses more closely allied with experienced managers rather than new management students. In almost all instances my answers reflected a true mix of management theory and experience. They reflected my preference to negotiate decisions based on the cooperation of employees and customers. (This style is not effective in time-critical issues.) Experience alone is rarely sufficiently sound basis on which to build a management philosophy that is strong enough to cover the complexities of organizational issues today. Theories help us extend our thinking to new environments and situations.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1998

Answers

Your summary of chapter one was good. I understood the basic ideas the authors were putting forth. You did not offer any analysis or explain whether or not you agreed with the authors. You also did not relate their ideas to your own experiences nor did you mention any discussions with friends or colleagues about this chapter. Chapter two was better because you did relate it to your work experience, although it was not clear to me if the unplanned rapid changes involving the decrease in conference revenues and the increase in overtime were directly related to your work. Also, you should probably spell out overtime, since the term OT can stand for a number of other terms. I am a physical therapist (PT) who works with occupational therapists (OT) and initially I translated OT to occupational therapist, until I quickly realized that didn't make any sense. You also did not mention a discussion with friends or colleagues or give much of an analysis - did you agree with the authors? The summary of the third chapter did not contain a discussion with friends or colleagues. What did you think of the quiz? Did it accurately reflect your management style, do you think?

-- Anonymous, December 16, 1998