22 MGMT 714 001 Leadership and Organization Assignment: Reflection Logs November 13th, 2006

November 13th, 2006
Reflection Log:

In the article, “Between “paralysis by analysis” and “extinction by instinct.”””, the author examines the over- and under use of formal analysis and describes its underlying motives. Three types of situations that lead to extensive analysis includes the “dialogue of the deaf”, the “vicious circle”, and the “decision vacuum.” As managers, we should try to find a balance between “making no decisions” and “over-emphasize on analysis to make decisions.” Moreover, action speaks louder than speaking and theories should be confirmed rather than brought into ammunition in a battle.

In the second article, “Conquering a culture of indecision”, reminds me some situation I’ve suffered in my MBA career. First example is that being an international student, I had a hard time with communication in English and sometimes the lecture topics are so jumping. I had to ask the professor that I had problems with the topics but the answered I got was: “Go ask your team-mate.” What an arbitrary answer? The second example is, once I had to ask a question during exam. The answer I got was “It is what it said.” Okay, if I did understand the question, I wouldn’t have to waste my time to ask you. These two examples demonstrate how indecision can affect people. And what’s more pathetic, in such a bureaucratic system, these professors can still get rewards such as awards. My point is, rather than giving lecture and exams, the professor should be able to do something to deliver knowledge. The MBA class is be a metaphor to the business environment. Or else I don’t even have to spend such a expensive tuition for MBA.

The third article, “Six habits of merely effective negotiators”, can be appropriately referred to the persuasion class. One of the mistakes while solving the right negotiation problem mentioned in the article, neglecting the other side’s problem, is similar to what we learned “play to win-win” and “deliver mutual benefit.” Another thought, searching too hard for common ground, is similar to what we said, we tend to regard the process of persuading as convincing but the author suggested us that it’s not convincing and selling but learning and negotiating.

During we first review the last lecture, visionary leaders and emotional intelligence. Then we talked about some paradoxes managers must cope with. Bias happens in decision making because we tend to give people lots of choices but ignore that sometimes. People raise questions because they need clear indicators. Indecision would bring a company to dis-function. But over-utilize the function of analysis on decision making would bring the same result. That’s what we need to learn to make decision between “paralysis by analysis” and “extinction by instinct.”

And we also have to know that conflict is not a bad thing. Conflict makes people think and communicate. But when managers ask people to do things their ways, they have to know what the advantage of their employees.