Thinking Styles and Forces of Influence
One of the major obstacles encountered at Crossroads Hospitality was the inefficiency of the payroll department in regards to how they obtained their data from the various properties managed. This department handles the calculations, printing, and distribution of paychecks to over one hundred properties nation wide. Currently this department handles the payroll as manual data entry, with the general managers of the individual property submitting their payroll on ledgers or excel spreadsheets, and the payroll clerks verifying for accuracy, at which point this data is input into the ADP payroll system for check distribution.
The base problem is the inefficiency of the system. They need to find a system that would streamline the work process while meeting the needs of both the payroll department and the managers at the properties. The payroll department was in need of a system, which would allow for a system of checks and balances, providing ease of implementation with minimal conversion of data between the new software and the current ADP system mainframe. Also, the payroll department would be challenged during the up coming months to accept responsibility for more hotels without increasing personnel or working hours, so the system would need to allow for maximum growth and flexibility.
The general managers at the properties faced with a completely diverse set of obstacles. Since they were currently entering their payroll manually on either ledgers or using Excel spreadsheets, they were faced with emplenting a system that was completely unfamiliar to them. Some of the obstacles they had to overcome was the lack of a system of checks and balances on employee time cards (currently employees record their times on paper or punch cards), mistakes which caused under pay or over pay for the employees and no immediate accessible reporting methods of employee overtime worked over a forty-hour workweek. One of the most pressing issues faced by both the general managers and corporate operations was the company as a whole lost over $500,000 per year to “bad” over time. Within this the guidelines of these needs, the Information Technology department had to find a system compatible for both parties and that would use current technology available at the hotels such as computers, software, and telephone lines to run the time clocks. Training was also an issue because of distance between the hotels and the diverse schedule of the personnel.
I have a habit of noticing redundancies in other people. Their personalities and their thoughts just seem so similar: daughters trying to be like mothers, or sons trying to be like fathers, or friends trying to be like each other. In my mind the sense of "self" that we as human beings have is more of a delusion than a reality, where we are nothing but the products of a multitude of influences throughout our lives. Did I ever have an original thought in my life? Or is it always someone else's idea that I am only repeating? What does it mean to be a human being without original thought and creativity? I talk like my friends do. I learned body language from my parents, stories from movies and books, perspectives on life from parents or philosophers or friends or teachers. Despite the myriad of thoughts that make up my personality, I feel as if I only absorbed my surroundings with no real personal creation. My parents keep asking me: "Who have you been hanging out with? Why do you act like this?" as if they already know that the comments I make, or the movies I enjoy or any of my other sudden preferences and mannerisms are not my own. When we are young, the adults tell us that "everyone is `special,' but how could I believe in this idea of personal creativity and uniqueness when there are so many influences that I copy in my life?
When I read the profiles of John as an introvert and as an extrovert, my mind kept returning to the thought that both of these stories were about the same man; that each told the story of that man in different circumstances. Immediately, my mind led me down the road of creating the story behind John. Was the extrovert John his normal persona, but introvert John showed up on a melancholy day? Or perhaps, Jon was usually very introverted, but we caught him on a particularly optimistic day in the extroverted scenario? I found myself wanting more details; wondering why he had not spoken with the pretty girl from last night. Why did he need the stationery? How does he know so many people in the paper store? Obviously, he is not a total recluse if he had the opportunity to see the pretty girl. My reaction is explained easily enough by author Malcolm Gladwell, "We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for." (Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking , 2005) Gladwell clarifies that when we are missing the details we crave to fill these gaps in the stories, we feel the need to create them ourselves. He further defines this behavior as “rapid cognition” which is, “…the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.” (Gladwell, 2005) We utilize rapid cognition on a daily basis to judge people and situations all around us. It is a subconscious process in which we size up a person or situation in approximately t...
Psychology is the study of the human brain and its functions which includes some internal and external influences. Throughout the PSYC 101 course, many concepts were discussed and had some sort of interest. Some of the most interesting concepts were the ones who left the most effect of the average human. Such as social norms, sleep disorders, and substance abuse. All three of these concepts affect the average humans’ behavior, personality or way of thinking.
There are several important people involved with this project and will help with the necessary changes needed for the Payable Audit System (PAS). Each person has a very detailed job description and the skills that would be used to make the changes to the system. First, Ted Anderson the director of disbursement began to notice how their current system was very labor-intensive. He knew of other ways to increase the productivity to the system and he would help in the plan to transform these changes. First, he changed the mind-set of how the system would work, and he organized a difficult training course with a 9 month duration designed for the employees. With his role on this project the company will make several fundamental changes, to pay the invoices in their tolerance. Keeping all history transactions, they would adopt a quality-control approach. Also eliminating all their paper files they would develop a Document Control System (DCS), where they would scan all of their documents into their computer system.
In the article The Mindset of a Champion Carol Dweck explains how important the mindset of an athlete is. Dweck goes into great detail about the differences of a growth and fixed mindset and how it influences athletes and students, Dweck mentions some of the characteristics of someone with a fixed mindset and she does the same with someone with a growth mindset. Someone with a fixed mindset typically sees their abilities as a fixed trait, they also believe that talent is a gift you either have it or you don’t, in the contrary someone with a growth mindset usually believes that people can cultivate their abilities. Dweck also mentions how sometimes a person can hold one mindset about intelligence and another about sports. The central psychological concept of this article is how your mindset affects your motivation to excel in your sport or school work. In the article Dweck discusses a few experimental studies, she was a part of, in the first experiment she indicates her hypothesis: students with a fixed mindset were more likely to cheat or give up. Independent variable: a group of students given a test in a new subject. Dependent Variable: a group of students given a test in a subject they enjoy. they found that those with a fixed mindset were more likely to say that if they did poorly on a test, even if it were in a new course they would most likely study less or even cheat on the next test. This example, provides great proof of Dweck’s definition of a fixed mindset.
My paper analyzes the IS/IT (Information Systems based on Information Technologies) of hotel units integrated in a group, using a literature and a case study which examines how the information technology of the ERP type are applied in the hotel units along with its limitations and its advantages.
...takes to set up information in the system. The level of understanding would improve through partaking or getting involved and henceforth could be adapted easily. All the bits and pieces of the project would rapidly increase or grow as per the workflow process. At the end, the overall CPOE system should be able to compare the manual method with the new electronic system and tell which is best and accurate to use and also tell how much time and money will be saved when using either system. At the end of the project the team should be able to come together and discuss whether or not the project met all of the company’s needs such as if it is reliable, efficient, safe and secure and also does it save time and money. Then, if the system has more advantages than disadvantages and it is worth all of the team’s time and effort it would be best to continue with the project.
Improve decision making on customers and sales orders based on the information provided by the new system.
Personality can be defined as an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. Many personality theorists have put forward claims as to where personality is derived from and how it develops throughout an individual’s life. The two main personality theories this essay will be focusing on is the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) and the Trait Theory – Five Factor Theory (FFT) (McCrae and Costa, 1995). The SCT allocates a central role to cognitive, observational learning and self-regulatory processes (Bandura, 1986). An individual’s personality develops through experiences with their sociocultural environment. Whereas the Trait Theory proposes that all individuals are predisposed with five traits (Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) which determines our personality. This theory also puts forward that personality is stable and cannot change as it’s biologically determined.
Ideology is a way of thinking that reflect the social needs and political doctrines of an individual or group. There are many different people and different circumstances this results in a variety of different ways of thinking, values and beliefs. Our ideology grows with us from childhood. From the moment you are born the family influence begins to impact your thought process.
After taking the survey, my results depicted that my primary style of thinking is Affiliative. I find this someone accurate in how I live my life, however there are characteristics I exhibit which diminish my affliliative personality. I find that I am continuously trying to find that perfect relationship or bond with someone. Frankly, I find it hard to make connections with others because my continuous need to be perfect. I find that my closest and best relationships are those who have common values, way of living, and ideals about living life. Once I find a relationship that is trusting, I try to maintain it to my best ability. I am very easy to talk to, however my best communication is with others that have the same values. I express my liking for the other person by showing some generosity and kindness.
When it came to IT, things really got out of hand. There was no clear path as to how money would be spent on it. IT was responsible for handling almost all of the transactions needed for the hotel. Things such as occupancy, check in/out, product inventory were all part of the IT infrastructure and there were several different configurations of hard/soft-ware, platforms and interfaces.
MidSouth Chamber of Commerce is an organization that rely heavily on their information systems. Lassiter, Hedges and Kovecki who has no information technology background were taken into computing operations. Introducing a new system is not an easy task until an organization has senior IT professionals and backup plans. In the end, it was the lack of proper management and lacked intimate knowledge of information systems made them depend on outside persons to make decisions that caused all these problems.
The frontal office of large hotels mostly uses a computerized system to manage the guest information and pass it to other departments in the hotel. The frontal office is made up of a team of people with each person having various responsibilities in handling the guests. For the small hotels front office, the reception desk may not be computerized and mostly the reception area handles all the guest information and also carries out other tasks such as showing guest to their rooms. In general the small hotels do not have a team of people or at times has very few people in handling the guests. (Bardi, 2006)
Today, there is a range of computerised systems in the market that business can use to keep track of their finances; few of the most recognised for their performance are Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, QuickBooks, SA...