Low-Cost Strategy

The low-cost strategy Is a strategy a company devises to offer their products at the lowest cost possible for the consumers. The book provides examples of low cost strategy with discount stores and generic products.
For me, the problem with low-cost strategy is that I do not look for the lowest price for most products. I am one of those customers that goes off of brand preference. I buy a product not by the price, but because of past experiences with the product.
Also, the book shows that a problem with the low-cost strategy is keeping manufacturing costs down which can be hard

Situational Leadership

Situational leadership is a style of leadership where the leader responds to his/her employees depending on the situation. There are four types of situational leadership: telling, selling, participating, and delegating. These four types are determined by the maturity of the group. Group members that need telling are the members that are less mature; no this does not mean less mature in personality necessarily, but it does mean members who have not gained the experience to be able to work on their own. As members become more mature they move through selling and participating in order to get to delegating. As a leader if your team reaches the delegating point, the leader becomes more of a group member as well.
Now as I was reading this, I thought that it sounded like a good form of leadership. You earn your way up by working hard and being responsible and you should hopefully make it to the point where tasks are being delegated to you. Well as the book points out, there are three flaws of situational leadership. The first is that this style doesn't provide a way to choose leaders who are flexible and able to adapt. The second problem is that it does not identify a way to choose people who can communicate with diverse people. The third problem is that it lacks motivation and inspiration.

Pervasive Communication Environment

Pervasive Communication Environment allows people from all over the world to talk to people from across the country. This is great for organizations because it allows them to set up sub-sections in other cities, states, or countries and still be able to communicate with them. The only difficulty would be the time differences.
Last year my group of friends made friends with the foreign exchange students from Australia. Once they had to go back home, there was no way we could talk to them through phones, but facebook and skype became a very helpful tool in communicating with them. It really helps because instead of losing friends we made because of distance, we can now still keep in contact with them and get quick responses back from them.

The four factors of a successful team

Chapter six discusses why companies are starting to move away from using teams. To summarize the reason is that companies feel that teams take too much time to make a decision and team members shield themselves from responsibility. The book specifies four factors that should lead to a successful team, but if they aren't within the group, the group may fail.
The first factor is that the team is only as good as their weakest link. In order for a team to be good, all members should be top performers. This allows the team to have the skills to succeed.
The second factor is that the team must be trained in working as a group. This includes that they must know how to make group decisions and communicate. In order for group members to be on the same page, they must know how to talk with one another.
The third factor is that a company must assign the team with the right tasks. Small tasks, given to a team, are a waste of time and money. A company should assign the team with a challenging outcome that impacts others.
The fourth factor is that the team members must understand that some members will contribute more than others, it all just depends on the task at hand and the person's expertise.

Team-Based Organization

Chapter Eight explains the concept of team-based organizations and the advantages of them. Team-based organizations are teams that have a group of employees with a wide variety of expertise. These people come together and form a group in order to work on a project. This group is effective because the exchange information with one another and bring a different outlook to the group. The groups should be self-managed and the workers are dedicated to self-improvement, positive results, and collaboration. The team-based organizations increase productivity which result in higher job satisfaction amongst employees.
My belief is that by bringing a wide array of employees into a group, including manufacturers, sales, and engineering, the group will avoid group think. Group think is common in groups and happens when the group goes along with one persons idea even if they think something is wrong, it is to avoid being the odd man out. By bringing in people with different perspectives, ideas will be out of the box and provide greater results.

Gender Differences at Work

In Chapter Seven, I was reading about the gender differences at work. The text says that men and women communicate differently; men are constantly trying to vie for status, while women are seeking connections when they communicate. Men are known to use report talk while speaking, where as women use rapport talk. Report talk is a a demonstration of skill, knowledge, ability, and instrumentality. It demonstrates command and is direct and assertive. Tends to demonstrate terms rather than personal experiences. Rapport talk is the opposite where women try to relate by using matching experiences, provides support, responsiveness, tentativeness, and is personal. These differences cause trouble talk, when men and women have different ways of interpreting the conversation.
I can relate to the description used for women in this chapter, I do talk to gain support or give support, I am always listening carefully to others, and it is normally about personal aspects of my life. On the other hand, when it comes to a work environment I tend to be very assertive and direct. I like to get my point across and be straightforward. When reading the descriptions I also related to how the men are and I think that is because of my dominant, blunt personality. This makes me think that women are able to use report talk, especially when at work.

Ideology

In chapter six, I learned about ideology. This is our assumption on how things should be within our society. It is apparent through our words, actions, and practices. When ideology is brought into an organization, it hinders the company. If a supervisor believes that men are only suitable for a certain job he will ignore capable women. We all have our ideologies that have been ingrained in us from birth through our experiences.
The other day I was in my marketing class and my teacher was trying to explain to the class that the automotive industry's marketing focuses on women. I responded by arguing that the automotive industry is geared to the men and although women make more decisions for their husbands, males still dominate this industry. This is my belief because since I was born men have been the main workers within that industry. If a woman goes to buy a car, most will bring a man with them. My sister bought her car and brought my dad because although she was the one buying the car, the salesman would only speak and bargain with my dad. If this industry is not male dominated, then why would this be the case?