DQ1
Reflect back on the last eight weeks. What were some new concepts/techniques/processes that you learned in this course, and/or that you can implement into the strategic planning of your organization (or even in your personal life)? How will the concepts learned be of value to you as a student and a professional?
Discuss your impressions of how the course has been useful to the furtherance of your understanding of strategic planning. What element of the course should be emphasized to a greater degree? What area(s), if any, do you suggest be added to the course in the future?
DQ2
Please select ONE of the questions below to answer:
- What conditions in the workplace are most likely to trigger a union organizing campaign?
- Describe the representation campaign from authorization cards through certification of the union. How can unions be decertified?
- Compare and contrast labor organizations in the public sector to those in the private sector.
- Describe the current trends in union membership and union organizing.
- Describe collective bargaining- What major functions does this process perform in organizations? What is a bargaining unit? How does the NLRB determine if it is appropriate?
R1
Hi Class, these 8 weeks have certainly gone by quick for me! I’ve had to get quite a bit ahead based on all of the upcoming travel for work, so by the time this week comes by, I’ll be in Orlando for another trade show and work conference. Either way, I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible & I appreciate everyone’s responses over the last 8 weeks of the course.
Anyways, aside from the various execution of strategies, I really enjoyed the SWOT analysis & the 5 forces model of competition. This really helped me because I was in the process of developing and creating my own SWOT for our Eastern Region Accounts. Having a thorough understanding of what the competitive landscape is, gives me an edge when speaking with customers. I now have a better understanding of how our threats & weaknesses go against us, what needs to be addressed, & how important it is to get our value proposition’s out there, to mitigate those threats and weaknesses. This is something that I will more than likely review annually, but since I’m in the utility industry, opportunities will not necessarily grow because our market is stagnant. Unless we happen to develop other products, the opportunities will remain what they are & purely be project based. I’m hoping our weaknesses or threats change as we continue to innovate and modify our technologies.
The concepts learned will be valuable because I’ve recently entered this sales position and working with a small team, will not only have to carry customers through the sales cycle, but will have to ensure the project kicks off on time & is successful so that the relationship can be built on & hopefully lead to following orders. This is where execution of strategies will take effect.
This course has furthered my understanding of strategic planning because it’s laid out the fundamentals to the process & dug deep on how you cannot expect projects, missions, or goals to be successful if the planning process isn’t reviewed and thought out carefully & strategically. I don’t believe any elements need to be emphasized more in the course. With them being 8 weeks, I think each week hits on a new topic and also provides some constant reassurance and training to talk on previous weeks and how they all relate to one another. Lastly, I do not think anything truly needs to be added to the course. I was not a fan of all the assignments purely based on my work schedule, but that’s just the name of the game. I still found the time to turn everything in & luckily they were not very lengthy, so it made it much easier to include throughout the week.
Thanks again Dr. Forehand for your help & allowing me to get ahead with my busy work schedule & thanks again class for your help & insight over the last 8 weeks. I look forward to your responses & I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
Take care,
Joshua Dyring
R2
Hello Class,
Strategic planning is valuable concept rather we incorporate it into our professional or personal lives. I appreciated learning about the core concepts, useful tools, and how to execute these strategies. The process I found most valuable was determining the organizations strategic position. It challenges the organization to priorities objectives, execute plans, and offers a chance for continues progress. It becomes easy for people to get lost in the everyday job. Encouraging members to dive deeper into the “why� is important to myself. In the military we often see a last-minute task come down requesting information. Turn around is expected in a day, which leaves members to estimate on what they believe the answer to be. This leads to inaccurate information that then leads to additional problems in the future. If the organization just slowed down to strategically plan what the expected outcome needs to be, the information we used would be more reliable. Being a Unit Deployment manager has its challenges. We are apart of many different programs that it can be hard to keep up withal the changes. I plan to use the resources from this course and incorporate it into my work center. I need to priorities the objectives, create a plan, execute it, and check the effectiveness. I will one day be replaced, and I want to make it easier for the next person to understand.
My impression of this class is overall great. It took me out of my comfort zone when having to do a video. I do know now that I don’t think I ever want to be a News anchor. This course provided a new perspective for me when looking at organization’s websites. I have a good understanding on what it takes to strategically plan. Nothing to take away or add to the course.
Karli
R3
Hello,
Unions have started to grow slowly among young workers in the labor force. This is because a lot of these workers are riddled with student debt, poor work environments, no job security, and poor pay and benefits. It is common occurrence for young employees to work several jobs to make ends meet. One employee worked full-time at an airport making minimum wage. She put in several years of her life at the company with no reward, and had growing struggles meeting ends meet. The union grew successful in her industry and now they are on their way to making $19 an hour (Figueroa, 2018). This increase in wages provides a drastic increase in the quality of life of workers. Because workers are so torn down by rising cost and stagnating wages they are willing to fight for better wages. This stagnation of wages and increase in the cost of living has made it impossible for the labor force to not take action. When you cannot make ends meet you are required to look at other options. In this case after several years of strikes, and union organization, they saw fruitful results. In this case workers are now taking more ownership over their role, and the union had a positive benefit on morale in the organization. Labor union involvement has declined among the youth (Dandalt, 2021). This is because labor unions are pictures as outdated and irrelevant. Labor unions need to make sure that the younger generation of youth are involved in labor activities to continue to increase involvement. Without the involvement of the younger generation of the labor force we will be stuck with low wages. But the younger generation is frustrated by the stagnant in wages, and the unions can capitalize on that need.
Besides wages and benefits improving working conditions has been a center of organized labor movements since the 1800’s. In 1866, the labor unions were fighting for the 8 hour work day. This allows employees to work safer, because they are not too tired to safely operate. After almost 100 years of fighting the organized labor unions had one of their biggest breakthroughs. This was the Occupational Safety and Health Act. This implements a law that focuses on workplace safety and health regulations. This act formed OSHA the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that was created to follow up on unsafe workplaces. The government and organizations early on tried to stifle the rise in unions. They did everything they could to stop the improvement of working conditions on behalf of corporations. This lead to many people being slaughtered while campaigning, striking, or organizing labor unions over the century. This shows that companies nor the government are ever genuinely concerned about workers well beings. This is why unions exist is to continue to fight against these working conditions. As times change, new industries are discovered faster than they can be regulated. With union involvement they can push for regulation and change when it is needed, before it is to late. Many disasters like woman burning alive in locked textile plants could have been avoided if governments took head to the unions warnings (Libcom, 2018).
Thank you. Have a great day.
Skyler Carr
References
Dandalt, E., Gasman, M., & Goma, G. (2021). A study of young workers’ union behaviors. [Union behavior] Personnel Review, 50(1), 344-357. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-10-2019-0544
Figueroa, H. (2018, Aug 30). Why Unions Still Matter, on Labor Day and Always. TCA News Service https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/why-unions-still-matter-on-labor-day-always/docview/2264374608/se-2
Libcom. (2018, October 1). Timeline of U.S. labor history. Libcom. https://libcom.org/article/timeline-us-labor-history