Throughout this course, we've explored the intricacies of the decision making process as well as different ways in which to improve our management skills. We did this by looking at different examples laid out in a combination of readings and in-class discussion. Specifically, from reading "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey" by Kenneth Blanchard, "Who Moved My Cheese?' by Spencer Johnson, "The Truth About Managing People" by Stephen Robbins, and by watching "The Inside Job", we get into detail about the many issues facing managers in the workplace as well as general decision making principles that we can all live by. .
Many managers are confronted by the issue of time management. More often than not, they find themselves in the office working long after the usual working hours. This is the problem that Blanchard seeks to solve in "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey". How can managers achieve their company's goals without having to spend all their available time at the office? The book is based on the life of the 'one minute manager' who never seems to have time for himself. He is always handling different tasks in the office despite having a number of subordinates. For example, the author explains a situation in which an employee approaches a manager over a particular problem. After a short discussion, the manager must attend a meeting and thus ends the discussion and promises to address it at another time. By doing this, he has just taken on the burden from the employee and has chosen to carry it on his behalf. Consequently, the employee is left idle while the manager gets busier. I can relate to this in my own work place. My boss is, in a sense, a 'one minute manager', taking on multiple tasks at the same time. He has so much work to do that often I see him coming in on scheduled days off or on weekends to, hopefully, put a dent in the workload. It is a vicious cycle where once one task is completed, another one pops up.
