CONSCIENTIOUS/Dominant

Last week, we had a class activity on personality test. It was about finding who you are between Leader and Manager. At the end of the test we all found the personality that described us. I found myself as a Cd person. I was really surprised because the characteristics of conscientiousness accurately match with my personality trait. As mentioned C is a kind of person that pays attention to key directives and standards, concentrate on key details. That is exactly true to me. I am interested to see things in details than in general. When I have an assignment or any kind of work that I do beside school, I spend a lot of time because I like to see them in details.  Other characteristics of being C are checking for accuracy and analyzing performance critically. This is also part of my personality. Sometimes I think that I have a bad habit about checking things to find it correctness. Whenever time I have to do a work in any situation I check it many times before I close it. Sometimes it is a good thing to check because I find some mistakes that I have to correct before any further action, but there is a kind of wasting time when you find that everything is correct.

I feel comfortable of being type C personality and I don’t want to be another type for now. May be in the future I would be D because I have some characteristics of it. But the only thing that I wouldn’t have in D is making quick decisions. I think you have to think and analyze before making decisions otherwise you might likely make the wrong decision.

This kind of activity is helpful to figure out about people especially if you have to deal with them in a management situation. You will know what is the best way to use when interacting with them without having any conflict.  The more you know the better you can handle it. When you are a leader or manager for example, if you know the personality type of people that you are working with, it could be easy to deal with them without contradiction. In addition, this kind of activity is helpful not only in a management situation but also in any kind of relationship. When your personality trait matches with your partner’s personality trait, you could understand each other more than if you have divergence personality.   

Extra Credit Assignment

Alpha Oumar Diallo

Prof: Kurpis           

MGT 3120

Fall 2010

Baruch College

11/12/2010

On Thursday November 4^th around 9 pm I went to a MacDonald located in 215 W. 125^th Street in Manhattan to complete an extra credit assignment.  It was raining and chilly. When I arrived at the location, there were a lot of people there and I had to wait to make my order. There were three different situations that I experienced: it is the situation before the order, during the order and after the order.    

            The line was long and employees were not enough to serve the number of customers who were there as fast as possible. You have to wait for several minutes to place your order. There were only two registers opened and one was moving better than the order.  Unfortunately, I was in the slowest line. I saw someone who seems to be the manager because she was telling employees what to do. In addition, most of the employees seemed to me Spanish descendent due to their accent and physical appearance. After five minutes of waiting, it was my turn to make my special order. It was a Spanish young girl who was at the register. As I stepped in front of her, she said, “How can I help you?” I said, “Can I have a special order of one hamburger with exactly five pickles, and one small French fries well done with a side of big Mac sauce, and I need the receipt please.” She smiled and asked me to repeat again my order. I repeated it and she started looking on her register, as it was her first day to use the machine. It took her two minutes to register the entries. Finally she said $3.12 and asked me to pay. Once she gave me the receipt, there were not five pickles and extra Mac sauce on the receipt.  I retuned the receipt to her and said, “This is not what I want. I need to see the five pickles on the receipt. She told me directly it is impossible. The manager saw us talking. She came and asked what’s going on. The employee explained the problem to the manager and the manger also confirmed that order was impossible. I kept repeating the order is possible. At the time we were arguing about the possibilities of the order, people started screaming at the back due to the long waiting line. The manager asked me to wait on the side and she is going to open a new register and try to find a way to fix my order.  

             Once she opened the new register, she started by voiding the first order because it doesn’t satisfy my requirement and I want to have everything that I ordered to show up on the receipt. She asked me to repeat slowly my order. But she did the same mistake as the employee did it before. And, I told her again that the five pickles should be on the receipt. An employee who was working at the cooking area came and explained to her to press the pickle button five times. Finally she was able to enter the order correctly. I assumed that she was a manger for some reasons, but not her competences. If competences really matter, the man who was at the cooking area was more qualify than her.     

            After the order was placed, it was the time preparation of the order. I heard the manager telling the employee who was in charge of my order to make sure that there are exactly five pickles. The employee took his time and did exactly what the manager said. They gave me the order after few minutes and I opened it in front of them to count the number of pickle. Fortunately, I had exactly five pickles in the hamburger with French fries well done and a side of big Mac sauce. At the end, the manager told me that she was sorry about the misunderstanding.  And all the employees were looking at me when I was leaving the place. I assumed that they were thinking that I was crazy.  

            As a consultant to that MacDonald’s, I would say there was great organization pattern. There was one manager who gave orders and solved problems, and each employee performed his or her task. Some employees were at the cooking area and others were in the front to take customers’ orders. The preparation time was on the average time for that kind of order. The only problem was adding not the pickles on the hamburger, but on the receipt. I think it was very difficult to know about that kind of special order because it is unusual. But, the manger didn’t give up even though she told me it was impossible. I saw a kind of uncertainty when she was telling me that the order was impossible. I think also opening a new register to figure out how she could fix my order was an important decision that she made. Some people could be served while fixing my order without delaying the service. 

              In addition, the communication was effective. I think places like restaurant or other kind of business services area tend to have effective commutation because the chance of the customer to come back depends on the first service rendered. Mangers mostly hire people who have good communication skills to increase the customer service performance. The communication between management and employees were also acceptable. When the manger finished registering my order, she insisted to put exactly five pickles, no more or less and the employee did it as he was told to do. The only thing that they have to do is to think about what customers ask before reacting. They shouldn’t tell customers that some orders like mine were impossible. In contrary, they should ask customers some questions to find a way to place them.   

            When it comes to the training, I can say employees were well trained to take usual orders. Some of them don’t even look at the screen when placing orders because it becomes a routine for them. But, for special order like mine, they need more training. I recall when I asked the cahier to have five pickles on the receipt she gave me a crazy look that I can assume she doesn’t know what to do. I think MacDonald’s’ owners should invest in training for special order.

            Finally, I can say that the man who came from the cooking area displays a kind of leadership. Even though he was just a regular employee in my opinion, but he expressed himself to help the manager resolve the problem. I think that place need a good leadership for it performance and increase the customer service qualities. The manager and the employee who helped to fix the order showed more actions of leadership that anyone else even though many people got involve in my transaction.           

Visions of A Better Future

    When you have an ambition and have the courage to take action, your dream becomes reality. Since I started college education, I think about my life after getting my bachelor. Sometimes I spend a lot of time making plans. With all the visions that I have, there are some that required to be reached in my life no matter how difficult they are. I know after two years I will be in the business world to start my career. My first goal is to have a good job that is related to my major in order to have some experiences before starting my master degree. To get the job that I want, I need to prepare myself now. I have to work really hard in my major. I need to motivate myself to excel from one class to another. My target is to reach the highest level of education. Having just the PhD is not enough, I want be a loyal expert. I need to do lot of researches and extra-curricula study to attain my goal. Because experience is very important in today's world, I'll start working once I get my bachelor. I need to be in the job learning to show what I know from the book learning.  As soon as I get one year experience, I'll go back to school for my master at the same time continuing my job. At the time I finish my master I will get married and start raising my family. I know it will be a long way to go, but once you know the ending point it will be easy. The first job that I want to get after receiving my master is an overseas job. It could be in any county in the world where there is peace and economic stability and I want to work there and live with my family for two to three years. This overseas job will be a good opportunity for me to visit new cities and learn from other people around world. I have passion of traveling and learning new culture. Once I get some experiences outside the US for two to three years with my family, I will return to school to pursuit my PhD. At the time I finish my PhD, I am going to return back home where I will join my father's company to bring the expertise that I have. And I will also open my own  foundation where I will engage myself in fighting against child labor and sexism at the same time helping orphans and people with disabilities. At the time I am close to the retirement period, I want to go to Mecca in Saoudi Arabia to perform the fifth pillars of Islam. It is a long way to go, but "Visions coupled with action can make things happen"!