Unethical use of Power and Influence Skills

The Presidential election is an exciting time for Americans. We are given the choice to vote for a President that we believe in and whom will lead our country for the next four years. For Americans, we have the freedom to decide our future. Unfortunately, some of those in power take advantage of others and try to control their votes. In the 2012 Presidential election, this type of coercive power was seen by David Siegel, CEO of Westgate Resorts. CNN reports in an article, CEO Emails 7,000 Employees: Defeat Obama or Else that David Siegel sent out a company wide email threatening to lay off employees if Obama was re-elected. The article’s author Chris Isidore reported that the email contained the following quotes:

"The economy doesn't currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration...If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone."

CEO Siegel didn't mention Romney's name anywhere in the e-mail, and he writes he "certainly wouldn't interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose." Although this email does not outright threaten employees with layoffs if they vote for Obama, it is surely implied. Siegel abused his positional power as CEO of Westgate Resorts. His centrality to the company’s employees is monumental to the company’s success but he abused that power by sending out company-wide emails threatening layoffs if the election did not go his way. It is unethical to threaten his employees or to try to control their vote in one direction.

The influence strategy he used here is retribution, implementing both coercion and intimidation to his employees. By threatening their jobs, Siegel is pressuring his employees to vote for Romney. It is clearly unethical for anyone to impede on their employee’s right to vote.

Administrative Services Manager

Whenever you being asked by a friend, " what is your major?" Someone might answer," I study business." but whenever the question goes deeper, someone might say, " I study business management" and the other person would follow up with ," you want to someday be a CEO or a manager?" Since business management is a very broad major, people always think by studying business management you might someday be a manager or even a CEO of a company.

Since its so broad, people think being a manager doesn't really require a degree in business or even attend college. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some management occupations only requires a high school diploma or equivalent as an entry level manager. Becoming a administrative services manager only requires a high school diploma or equivalent to become one. However, some administrative services managers need at least a bachelor’s degree. Those with a bachelor’s degree typically study business, engineering, or facility management. According to the BLS, the administrative services manager career field is expected to grow as fast as average. Employment of administrative services managers is expected to grow 15 percent from 2010 to 2020.

Administrative services managers plan, direct, and coordinate supportive services of an organization. Their specific responsibilities vary by the type of organization and may include keeping records, distributing mail, and planning and maintaining facilities. In a small organization, they may direct all support services and may be called the business office manager. Large organizations may have several layers of administrative managers who specialize in different areas.

Some of the important qualities listed in becoming a administrative services manager:

Analytical skills. Administrative services managers must be able to review an organization’s procedures and find ways to improve efficiency.

Communication skills. Much of an administrative services manager’s time is spent working with other people. Therefore, communication is a key quality.

Detail oriented. Administrative services managers must pay attention to details. This quality is necessary across a range of tasks, from ensuring that the organization complies with building codes to managing the process of buying equipment.

Leadership skills. In managing workers and coordinating administrative duties, administrative services managers must be able to motivate employees and deal with issues that may arise.

source :http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/administrative-services-managers.htm#tab-4

In order to become an administrative services manager, its really an advantage to get an certification from the International Facility Management Association. This programs has two levels where you can get the Facilities Management Professional (FMP) certification and the Certified Facility Manager (CFM) certification. According to the BLS site, people entering the profession can get the FMP as a steppingstone to the CFM. For the CFM, applicants must meet certain educational and experience requirements. There are online courses for people who can just study at home and there are conference and expos where you can go and network with people and learn some new things.

Educational Path

Finding the right educational path is hard and taking the right classes is hard. For me, I started my educational path at CCSF and later transferred to SFSU. Because I am a transferred student, some of the lower division course I had taken was from City College of San Francisco. The way I planned out what classes to take before transferring was first talking to my counselor and visit the campus where I would like to transfer and talk with an academic adviser from the college. Talking to a counselor beforehand is critical to taking the right classes. If you have taking the wrong class, you might need to take an additional year for your study in the college. Before transferring, it is also best to check out assist so you would know exactly what you need to take in order to transfer. Also, if you are a transferring from a community college like CCSF to a California State University, you need to complete most of your majors lower division class and some of the GE classes before you can transfer.



Some of the classes I thought it was really useful when studying in CCSF are the English and business related classes. English classes provided at CCSF are probably the toughest courses compared to any other community college. The sequence is long for Nonnative speakers and it takes about 3 years to complete the whole sequence. I remember taking Eng. 96 with a really strict teacher, but he really helped improve my writing skills. In the class, I remember writing essays and constantly revising my paper. The teacher always emphasize on an upside down pyramid in writing essays. First, writing broad and narrowing down to the main point of the essay. This class trained me in critical reading and in writing argumentative essays which are some skills I need to have when pursing in the management field. Also, this class emphasizes on reading and writing analytically and developing research and documentation skills. Some of the basic business classes also gave me an overview perspective on what business is like and how organizations are using different techniques to run their businesses. One business class I thought it was really useful is the introduction to business course. This class really gave me an overview about business and how organizations function in the society and in the world as a whole.

Another requirement class which was really useful is a public speaking class. This class really helped students practice public speaking skills. For me, it really helped me with later presentations in my business classes at SFSU.  Classes I think it is really useful taking here at SFSU are MGMT 405. This class really helps me understand the basic theories and skills for a manager. However, this class consists of around 600 people and there are a lot of distractions when students come in late. Another class, MGMT 605, which I am currently taking, is really useful. This class really focused on critical thinking and personal development skills in the area of management. The teacher was really helpful in helping students understand the concepts and provide a positive learning environment for the students.

Readings and Writings of Tom

Reading:  

Some of the readings Tom do  is going over the Singtao newspaper everyday. He seldom reads Wall street Journal and New York Times. He talks about how important it is to be up to date with the current news, He said, " any kind of news is a new opportunity and it can also be a warning sign in business, you need to know what is going on to be ahead of everyone else." Other readings he do is going online and visiting Yelp to review customer's dinner experience at the restaurants and tries to improve the dinning experience.

One thing interesting  I think he do as a reading activity is reading menus from different restaurant. He does this because he want to visit different restaurants and try to adapt the best from other restaurants to improve his own business. 
During his spare time, he would read business related books, usually focusing on American style management.

Writing:

What he told me is he usually don't write too much. He usually focus on face to face communication and phone communication. He told me sometimes he would write down plans of what he will discuss with the employees during the meeting. Also he writes and replies emails. What he told me to look out for when writing emails are to be professional and try to focus on the main points. 

A day in life of a restaurant owner

To one day start my own business is one of my goals in life. I know start a business is not hard but keeping it running is very hard. You need to know many things before starting your own business. What I have done is to interviewing a restaurant owner who has been in business for more than ten years.
The person I choose to interview is a restaurant owner in San Francisco where his business had been around for more than 10 years. Tom (the name had been change due to personal concerns) usually starts his day off by first eating his breakfast at home and reading the daily news paper he buys from Chinatown. In the morning he usually goes online and read reviews left on Yelp and checking emails and messages on his phone. Usually after seeing bad reviews for his restaurant, he would always set up meetings with the servers and kitchen staff to see what is going on and tries to encourage the employees to have a higher standard for themselves. As for the servers, he said he wouldn't say anything because not everyone would like the way you try to serve them but they need to provide good service.

Later in his day, he usually goes around the bay area visiting different restaurant and learning and discussing about how to better run a restaurant business. He would always try to go around business in Chinatown and talk with the chefs and see how the business they are working for are doing. He said he always want to know how business are doing and whether if he could try to hire the good chefs to work for him. He just told me, " If you really want to learn how to run a business, you really need to have a strong team, good communication skills and a good business plan but the most important thing is to learn from other restaurant owners."  Not only do I agree with him on the fact we need to learn from others but also constantly being up to date with information is necessary.

After visiting some of the restaurants around the bay area, he would usually stop by ABC to have milk tea and have lunch. Then he would deal with restaurant problems if there is any but if not, he would just continue going around and meeting with people. So usually 70 % of his day is communicating with different people and the other 15 % is reading and writing. The last 15% is when he travels around .
At the end of his day, he usually goes back the the restaurant around 11:30 P.M. and collecting the number of money earn in today's sales.

Reviewing Business Related Blogs

Balance is really the key to life. What are some of the things people should do when they are being stressful? Here I have reviewed a blog called Developing Management Skills: Managing Stress, where it teaches you the stages of stress, four keys sources of stresses, and different ways to deal with them. This blog is really something everyone should look into since it teaches a lot of how to deal with stress. Although it is a really good blog article, I really have no clue on where the information he writes is coming from. However, by reading this blog, I learned a lot about how to deal to stress in a day to day life. I feel what missing from this blog is really showing an informational video on how to deal with stress. I would really benefited with watching a video like this one:  

Here I reviewed another blog called Learning about Business Management with Lemons. It really brings us back to an simple idea about lemonade stand. Just like the article states," cliche aside, a lemonade stand truly is the first step that kids take into the world of business management and entrepreneurship". This article really brings a good point about as people grow older, people tend to end up with an complicated business. It is not like opening up a lemonade stand where is just a simple business where you add a few things to make an lemonade and create a successful business. In this small lemonade business, you learn to adapt to the environment according to the weather and you learn how to be friendly and communicate with your potential customers. Highly recommend for readers to read and get back to the basic.
" When life gives you lemon, you make lemonade."



The last blog I reviewed was about The Reality of Chinese Micro-blogging. I choose to review this blog post is because due to the rights citizens have in their country, they might not have a voice in what they want to say in a blog. It is also affecting whether a business will want to have their firms in China. Sina weibo is short of like twitter, but the difference is on Sina weibo, there is over 1000 employees who monitors and censors what is being said on the mircro-blog. Not only the company itself employs workers, the communist party also highers employees to make sure Sina weibo of the world is following guidelines.This article gives a good example about what the message is. It is one if your landlord says "no pets," even though you think no one has a right to restrict your ability to live with your beloved Labrador, then you choose. I will live there with Daisy and risk being evicted, or look for another place to live. And so it is with living and doing business in China. People are not willing to have presence in China because people don't like the politics and how the citizens are treated in China. But if companies want to be in China, then you must respect your host and the rules of the games they develop.

Connective writing

What is a blog? How is it different from writing essays? Why do people blog? How and where you can start your own blog?


Let's first examine what is a blog. Blogs in Plain English is really a good and short video to watch. It explains what is a blog in really simple words if you don't like to read in context about what is a blog. Some people think blogs are online diaries where people share their opinions, ramblings and personal events. However, there are more to that. Blogs are where people post "News" and it's a way for people to share their own perspective on a issue and to interact with one another. People read, link and quote blogs. Many people use a blog just to organize their own thoughts, while others command influential, worldwide audiences of thousands. Professional and amateur journalists use blogs to publish breaking news, while personal journalist reveal inner thoughts.( Blogger Tour)

Genres are classified by writing style, authorial tone, the content and even word counts play a role. Probably the major difference from a blog and an essay is that blogs are continuous and essays are simply a writing that ends. There is no a lot of interaction between the reader and the writer. Writing is monologue and blogging is conversation. There is always a structure in writing essays. What I learned when I was in school is to write five paragraphs consisting of introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In an essay, the teacher is probably the only reader and sometimes you're writing according to their standards. However, in a blog, writers will analyze/synthesize what they have to read and link it to what we have to say in our own blog. There is always a constant interaction where as writers and readers can be returned to and reflected upon on.

Not only are blogs a way bloggers react to one another, it's also a platform where a one can blog themselves into finding a job. it’s a tool for all jobseekers to demonstrate their ability to analyze, synthesize and communicate information in their field. By blogging about professional and academic experiences, jobseekers can animate those bullet points on their resume, bringing to life a semester abroad, a service-learning course, or an internship. Here is a good example where an undergraduate studying at Berkeley who loves life science and blogging about how fascinating Biology is.  

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Some people blog because they want to interact with a group of community whose interest are relevant to theirs. Many big companies are starting their own blog just to make a difference or provide information about their company. Some people blog because they want to make a living or provide a service. For example, Google launched its blog where it discusses Google's products, technology and Google culture. A way people can make money for writing blogs is to post advertisement. If there is a lot of traffic on your blog, a lot of companies might want to post their ad on your blog because people might click into their website and buy the product and service the company provides.

After learning so much about blog and reading other people's blog and commenting on their blog, I feel there are interactions between the readers and writers. There are so much ideas and information out there and through reading interesting blogs each day, you never know what you might learn on that given day.

The easiest way to learn how to blog is to start a blog. I think the first step is to visit the Blogger Tour just to get a sense of how blogging is like. Also, another way is to visit blogging websites to see how other bloggers are doing with their blog and if you find any interest in starting your own blog. Websites like Io9 and Blog can give you an idea of how blogs look like. To start a blog, you can visit websites like Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, and many others that provide tools on starting your own blog.