Samantha's MGMT 453 blog

What Did I Find Out About Myself?

I was able to take 3 online tests to help determine my personality in stressful situations, what coping skills I use, and what percent chance I will have a stressed-induced breakdown. From Psychology Today, I took their Type A Personality Test and Coping & Stress Management Skills Test. What I learned about myself is that “My interactions with others, while characterized by warmth and tolerance the majority of the time, may occasionally be tinged with impatience and hostility.” I was surprised about the hostility being a part of the results. I also learned ” … our results indicate that you sometimes use problem-focused strategies in order to cope with stress. ” This I do find to be true, I try to make best of the situation at hand. However, with situations that aren’t controllable it is harder to not stress if things are not going my way.

Lastly I took the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory, where you get points from events that happened within the last year. The more points, the more likely you are to have a major health breakdown within the next 2 years. I scored 149, which to me is a relief. This states that I have a relatively low amount of life change within the last year which means I have a low susceptibility to stress-induced health breakdown. I do want to mention, that I have been diagnosed with anxiety, in which I take medication and go to therapy weekly. I believe if I wasn’t doing these things regularly, my results would be drastically different. I would continue to go to therapy and take medication to help cope with my everyday life stress.

What are Organizations Doing to Help Their Employees Manage Their Health and Cope with Stress? 

Currently, there are many ways that companies are starting to incorporate wellness into work. From Forbes, some of these ideas are; Coaching Opportunities, Meeting-Free Days, Substance Use and Coping Resources, Regular Benefits Reviews, Employee Stress Surveys, and more. In regards to the few ways I mentioned above, I think these are great ways a company can help show their employees that they are valued and are cared for. By providing these resources, employees will lead a less stressful life and might lead to having better wellness overall.

References

Panel, E. (2024, October 9). 18 Stress management initiatives businesses can implement today. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2024/10/09/18-stress-management-initiatives-businesses-can-implement-today/

Types of Compensation

What does compensation look like from your employer? Well, there are two components to compensation: Extrinsic and Intrinsic. Extrinsic would be things that are tangible, and they include things that are monetary and nonmonetary. an example would be things like base pay, incentives, and benefits. Intrinsic would be things like the intangible, phycological, and social effects of compensation.

Personal Story

My dad has been working at his local golf course for 10+ years, and his compensation has definitely affected his outlook of the business. Through out his time there, he has considered quitting because of a lack of pay. He has all the knowledge to fix things, solve problems, and be able to think on his feet. As he was hired as a maintenance mechanic, and as the years came his responsibilities became more complex and challenging, however his pay grade stay the same. He was hired on as hourly, and the owners have switched a few times during my dads time there.

Because of his responsibilities have increased, he asked for a raise. He was denied as he doesn’t have a high school diploma, even though he was more capable at his specific job than his coworkers. After being denied, he lowered his effort and took on less responsibility as he wasn’t receiving what he thought was fair. Eventually, after the owner realized what a great asset my dad was to the golf course, he slowly got a raise and several types of compensation. Such as free travel, a phone plan, and overtime pay.

My dad shows that depending on what he thinks is fair compensation, he will work at the level of compensation that is given to him.

Why is Training Important?

Being a new hire at a brand new job may be nerve wracking, exciting, or scary. However, with the proper training, any new employee will feel that they fit right in. Training can have many benefits, such as creating a better impact on employee performance, and mitigating the risk of the employer for any liabilities. There are different kinds of training; Presentation, Hands-on, and Group Building (Swift).

Personal Experience

I have had great training sessions and some bad ones as well. One of my favorite trainings was done at a Starbucks inside a Safeway. Some of the things that made this training so successful was the little things they did to make me feel special. Things such as pins, my name tag, a cute booklet for me to fill out when trying coffee, etc. This made me feel seen and was also a lot of fun. I got hands both presentation and hands on experience. This training was completed over the course of 2 weeks, by making each section into bite size chunks, which is one of the principles of creating a learning environment (Swift).

Some bad trainings that I have gotten were at a new business, with young owners. My training was done over the course of 2 days, and then I was left to run the shop by myself. Of course, they said to call whenever something was needed, however as a brand new employee I did not feel comfortable working alone let alone calling every time something went awry. The majority of my training was hands on, but really fast. There were not any times for asking questions, or any reference material to study to be more prepared at this establishment. The socializing part of my training was absent, just casual hello, and I began to realize I would often work by myself and would not know my coworkers. At this place of work, none of the onboarding process’s that would be make it more effective were not incorporated. Which probably explains why I didn’t feel welcomed, or liked I belonged there compared to my experience at Starbucks.

Source

Swift, Michelle. “Week Six”, MGMT 453, 10 November 2024, Oregon State University, Class Lecture.

What’s the Point of an Interview?

The reason for an interview is to evaluate potential candidates for a position at your company. By conducting an interview, you’ll be able to assess if the person is what you are looking for. The type of interview you conduct should be based off of methods with systematic data so they are reliable, valid, and have good utility.

The Big Three

1. Reliability – the consistency and dependability of a performance measure; the degree to which it is free from error; a necessary condition for validity
2. Validity – the extent to which a performance measure assesses what it’s supposed to measure (i.e., relates to how accurately it measures something);
3. Selection utility – the extent to which a selection procedure is worth the time and money

Personal Experience

I have had a few job interviews, however not a lot that were memorable. The job interviews I have been interviewed for were structured. Most of the questions were pretty standard, relating to behavioral and situational questions. An example for a cafe barista position that I was interviewing for asked me “Tell me about a time when a customer was upset with their order and what did you do about it?”. These kinds of questions are good because this will let the interviewer know how well I performed at a task. In this setting, you would call this kind of interview reliable, as it is structured and standard questions.

Another interview, I suppose you would call it that, was surprisingly done online through DMing each other on the platform Instagram. This was for a local small donut shop hiring for a barista and cashier. The utility of this method was high, as it was easy to text each party, however the questions on their side would be considered unreliable and not valid. As they didn’t really know who I was. The questions consisted of “Have you worked customer service before? Have you made espresso before?” etc. They hired me on the spot with no in person interview, and very little questions about my previous work history and experience. Needless to say I did not work there very long.

By comparing some of the interviews I have had in the past I would recommend these employers to try to schedule a meeting professionally, whether on zoom or in person. Having a variety of questions to understand the person as a whole, such as behavioral questions , open-ended questions and be sure to avoid obvious questions.

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