Management Reflection - week 1

So for this semester we have a management for engineers course and we're asked to write reflections on what we learned throughout the week. At first I thought geez more essays but then I realised this is kinda like writing a blog article, where I just write down what I see and how I feel about it. So here I will just gather my ideas and rewrite it for the tutorial, see if that works.

One of the first thing which I took note of the lecturer's saying was that we manage our classes, work, basically our lives without thinking about it. My friends and I weigh which classes are important and which ones arent, which ones are worth going to and which ones arent. A mum who manages household work and kids at the same time is an effective manager. What we are trying to learn is how to manage our engineering career.

We learned the four functions of management are planning, organising, leading and controlling. I already knew about the first three since I've been doing it regularly. My first thought on controlling was basically the same as leading. However the lecturer showed that was external control, there is also an internal control where you help people achieve results through self direction and self discipline. I have never considered that as a way of managing a team.

Another point I took in was the “Hawthorne Halo” effect. Studies show when someone is watching you or gives you compliments, you automatically do better in most cases. If my boss was watching me work, I would be forced to raise my standard and if he gave me a compliment then I would know that this is the level I should be working at, to make both him and the company happy. I can make use of this next time when I organise or lead a group, whether in games or for school projects.

I guess this is about it, hopefully this is enough XD