Models of Democracy

Models of Democracy; Web Lecture

I found our web lecture for this week to be very interesting (especially the models of democracy). Thanks for making a chart Prof. Cyborg so that I (and the class) could easily see the differences between each model of democracy. I think at my job I see three models of democracy performed: Procedural, Participatory,and Dialogic. Procedural democracy is important to our company because we do enforce standard procedures and rules daily. Participatory democracy occurs most with the managerial staff with informed discussions about the business. And dialogic democracy occurs between a staff member and a manager. The manager shows concern for the employees emotions and concerns and will listen to them in the appropriate time.

Mindless Communication

Mindless Communication; Ch. 11; page 344-345

I would say that when I partake in mindless conversations they tend to be phatic communications rather than scripted. I have mindless conversations with customers all the time to have them feel that I am interested in what they are saying. Most of the time, I'm not interested. I simply let them I guess let them release their story they have been wanting to tell someone. Rather than being rude, I don't interrupt them and let them say what they want to say. My way of letting them know I'm listening is something subtle like nodding or smiling. It does however surprise me sometimes what people are willing to divulge to a stranger. Sometimes the conversation will be a form of nagging about their spouse (which are usually pretty funny). I know I wouldn't say some of the stuff I hear while I'm helping a customer with their purchase.

Training and Development

Training and Development; Ch. 10; page 322

Employee training and development is something I do every day for my job. I have trained the majority of the staff where I work and continue to develop their customer service skills and knowledge of our programs offered. Training a new hire normally doesn't take more than a couple hours. Most of the training is hands on where I perform a task with the trainee watching me and then I have them do it. After they complete their task, I tell them what they forgot to do. Development is usually done over a long period of time. The new hire will usually start at one position and based on their performance during the first 3 months of their employment we give them more responsibilities and develop what they have been trained on so for and add to it based on their new responsibilities.

Harassment

Harassment; Ch. 9; page 298

Luckily I haven't ever gotten caught up in the whole sexual harassment at work conflict. However, I have made the mistake of dating a co-worker and feared it would hurt me if things didn't work out between us. I thought of all the consequences that could occur if she told my boss something that could be classified as sexual harassment. I knew it was never a good idea to date a co-worker (even worse someone I supervised), but sometimes the heart doesn't listen to your conscience. When we broke up, things at work got as awkward as I thought they would get. We had a very public break-up and everyone at work knew about it. I ended up changing the shift schedule so we wouldn't have to work together. Thank god a few months later she quit and went off to college in another state. After that, things were a lot easier and I was happy.

Take my experience as proof that you should not date someone you work with!

Quality-Improvement Teams

Quality-Improvement Teams; Ch. 8; page 241

I am part of a quality-improvement team for my job as a manager. I am always supervising employees and their delivery of customer service. I have to talk to some employees after listening to how they helped a customer. If I feel they didn't help answer the customer's questions well enough, I will tell them the correct answers/way to help the customer. It usually is a result of the employee not knowing the correct answer and I just need to inform the employee the correct information. However, sometimes I will hear the employee give the customer wrong information and I will intervene. Another responsibility is improving customer satisfaction by price reductions and sales. I maintain or merchandise and inventory. In this aspect, I allow discounts to customers and place orders for customers if we don't have inventory on hand. I am constantly recommending to the general manager when to have sales for our merchandise.

Communication Imperative

Communication Imperative; Web Lecture; Technology & Teams

I am definitely a social being. I communicate through as many forms possible to everyone I know and don't know. These blogging posts are a form of how I communicate to people I have never met in person. I communicate to people I know through phone, texting, facebook, email, and I still send regular postal mail. I have friends that haven't written a letter in years and sent it through the mail. The only thing they will mail is a birthday card to a relative. I used to have a Myspace page to communicate through a social-network, but decided to switch to facebook because the context felt more apporpriate for my demographics.

Conflict

Conflict; Ch. 8; page 248

Conflict is a constant occurrence at where I work. There are conflicts between customer and employee, employee vs. customer, customer vs. customer, and employee vs. employee. I would not be going out on a limb by saying there is at least one conflict every day in one form or another at my job. For example, a customer recently placed an special order for a pair of skates so her daughter can have a new/better pair of ice skates for her class starting next week. She placed the order 3 weeks ago and the skates have yet to arrive because they were back-order by the supplier we purchase from. So the customer is now upset with us (the ice rink) for not having her skates ready for her daughter. We can only apologize to the customer because we are technically not at fault because the supplier had to back-order the shipment. I always understand the customers conflict, but there is only so much we can control.